Fairy Tale Verses Reality
by American HOT Fender
Summary: She’s on the run from an abusive husband, he’s divorced and recovering from a broken heart. In this tangle of events they both discover they need each other. COMPLETE. Revised ending chapter!
1. Fairy Tale Verses Reality

Disclaimer: I don't on HA. Or "_Wish you were here" _by _Incubus_

Summary: she's on the run from an abusive husband; he's divorced and recovering from a broken heart. In the tangle of events they both discover then need each other. And you might discover they have more in common than you think.

Chapter 1 Fairy Tale Verses Reality 

The air whisked briskly, stirring sand into a whirlwind state. The sea foam waves crashed and engulfed anything in their path. A footprint in the sand became a spotted target. The water washed over it, smoothing its fine lines and depth.

If you followed the footprints you saw they weren't old. In fact they were fresher than bread. Up ahead new prints formed from a being running. He threw his hands in the air as he ran down the shore. He hoped and hollered, his hair blowing backwards on his head.

_" I dig my toes into the sand,_

_the ocean resembles a thousand diamonds,_

_strun across a blue blanket,_

_I lean against the wind,_

_Pretend that I am weightless,_

_An din this moment I am happy…"_

In the blue blanket of sea, a girl courageously tackled a wave on a fiberglass board. She crouched forward, ducking through the tube. A grin boarded her face. Her blue/green eyes flickered like two shiny diamonds. Her hair stuck to the sides of her face.

_"…I wish you were here,_

_I wish you were here,_

_I wish you were here,_

_I wish you were here…"_

The girl flowed forward in a cool stream until she hit the beach sand. The guy that had been running down the shore instantly scooped her up in his arms. The plastered grin she wore morphed into a giant smile, and then into a laugh. He sat her down and the two of them jogged back up shore to their friends. While everyone rejoiced, one loan boy stood a distance and watched. Jealous, envious and hurt.

_"…I lay my head unto the sand,_

_the sky reassembles a back-lit canopy,_

_with holes punched in it,_

_I'm counting UFOs,_

_I signal them with my latter,_

_And in this moment I am happy…"_

Time stood an eerie still for the boy as he watched the celebration. Nobody seemed to notice him, at all. He wondered if they actually didn't. For one brief second, the surfer girl was pulled away from the limelight. She stared at him. Everything was silent as they just stared. But, the time sped ahead and she was forced back into the spot light.

_"…I wish you were here,_

_I wish you were here,_

_I wish you were here,_

_I wish you were here…"_

The young man turned and started walking away. The surfer girl started to go after him, but was grabbed by he other guy. He glanced in the loner direction and muttered words under his breath.

_"…The worlds a roller coaster,_

_and I am not strapped in,_

_maybe I should hold with care,_

_but my hands are busy in the air!"_

**_(End of flash back)_**

****

Helga gurgled, gasping for air. Her face was turning blood red. The black mist started fogging up her vision. Creeping in through the sides of her eyes to envelope her. She could feel her body no longer. All pain was gone. She wasn't ready to go. Not yet.

She squirmed and struggled to free herself. She desperately squeezed the than clutching her throat. The little strength she had however, wasn't enough and was giving away fast.

'This is it" she thought 'this is finally how its going to go down'

She finally quit struggling and let the hand crush her. She waited, and thought about life with out her. The force suddenly was released. She felt her self fumble to the floor. She sucked in the much need air. Her limp body sat in exhaustion. With all the strength she could cook up she batted her eyes open. She saw _him_ passed out on the floor.

_Him._ The foul creature she was legally binded too. It got worse and worse as every day passed. And yet she didn't anything about it, hoping that it would get better. Today she was saved by his drunken stuporness, but that was today, tomorrow she might not be so lucky

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Helga flickered her eyes open and viewed the world. She'd some how made it into their bed. She wondered when she had gotten there. As she went to sit up she was struck by a throbbing in her neck. The hurt prevented such movements. She ran her tiny hand over her neck. It felt tender and raw. Tears started blotting the corners of her eyes. She very carefully turned her head to the left. She scowled at _him._ He finished putting on his shirt, walked to the bed and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"I'll be home around 6:30" is al he said before leaving the room.

' Bastard!' her mind screamed to him. As soon as she heard the door down stairs open and shut she very carefully rose from their bed.

She wobbled across the room, rubbing the back of her neck. It hurt so badly. She bet it looked worse though. She flipped the switch on in the bathroom. Golden light saturated the room. It gleamed off the marble counter tops and tile flooring. Helga started into the mirror. She grimaced at the withered being that stared back. The girl's stomach churned. However she forced herself to keep looking. Along the sides of her mirror were cut outs clippings of a girl surfing. She reached up and ran her fingers over them.

" Hey mom!" a semi-deep male voice made her jump. She turned to face it.

"oh, Ace…you scared me" she spoke lightly to her son. He was tall, muscular, with blonde spiky hair. A real girl magnet.

" sorry mom I—" Ace squinted " mom what happened to you?" the boy rushed to his mothers side. "did dad do this to you!" his face became more serious

"Don't worry about it. You need to get to school." Her son looked at the floor and sighed. " Where's your brother an sister?" Helga asked

"I think Diamond already left for school and Lindsey is eating breakfest."

" Why'd Dia leave early?" Helga ran her hands through her hair.

"I don't know. Probably make up work or something." He shrugged back.

Helga nodded "ahhh! Ouch ouch!" she grabbed her neck.

"Mom….let me help you back into bed." He put a friendly arm around her

"No, I wanna go down stairs"

"okay, but at least let me help you down the stairs.

His mother agreed and her son escorted her down the stairs. Ace crinkled his face up as he looked at the purplish handprint wrapping around his moms neck.

"Mom, I'm tired of him doing this to you…" he spoke out in a low voice

"Your father is under a lot of stress right now—"

" I wish you'd stop making excuses for him.."

"Ace, leave it alone." Before Ace could reply they were down the stairs and Helga was heading to the kitchen. His younger sibling sat at the island bar, buttering toast.

"Good morning dear!"

" Hey mom!" Lindsey's enthusiasm faded when she saw Helga's depleted state. " Mom, you okay?"

"Yes, yes I'm fine!"

Ace looked as his sister and rolled his eyes. Lindsey nodded.

" come on Lindsey, lets get going. You better not drop any crumbs in my car!" Ace headed back out the kitchen, frustrated. The brown haired sibling skipped out behind him munching on her toast.

Helga crossed the kitchen to the cabinets by the sink. She opened a top oak door and began weeding through bottles. She found the one she wanted and dumped two capsules into her palm. She knocked them back without a liquid. She rubbed her hand down the side of her cheek. She felt like crap. With good reason though. Sighing she headed for the couch.

_A/N: well that's the first chapter. I hope you guys like it. Once the story starts progressing you'll start understanding the random flashbacks she has. Okay well R & R! I'm out!_


	2. Stand up for Whats Right

Disclaimer: I don't own HA. I wish…

Chapter 2 

**Stand up for What's Right**

****

"Hey bro!" Ace called down the hallway to his twin. The hall way was filled with the morning bustle of class change. Students merely walked along with their friends, putting books in lockers.

"Hey!" Diamond called back, shoving a notebook into this locker.

"Did you see mom this morning?" his brother asked walking up to him.

Diamond grabbed his English textbook. "Nope, left out early this morning. Haven't seen her. Why?"

"Dad did a number on her last night…." Ace lowered his head

His Twin shut his locker and stared at his brother. "Sounds like a real tragedy. Now I gotta go" He turned to leave but Ace grabbed his arm tightly.

"How can you not care? He is going to severely hurt her one-day. Maybe even kill her! What if he goes after Lindsey!"

Diamond jerked his brother's hand loose from his arm. "Listen! All I know is that they pay for my clothes, my car and everything else. As far as their troubles….I don't care!" he spat.

Ace watched as his brother strolled off down the hall. He was so carefree. He watched as he laughed and looped his arm around one of his many girlfriends. As he watched he found himself becoming angry. His facial features hardened. He just couldn't understand his brother. No matter how hard he tried. Feeling defeated he hung his head and walked to his class

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

**(Flashback)**

"I'm gonna be the best! I'm gonna be the best surfer!" A blonde girl jokingly yelled.

"You'll have to beat me first!" her equally happy male counter part replied. He ran up behind her and picked her up. She playfully slapped him.

"Put me down!" she tried to sound serious but began giggling. He did as he was told but never took his hands off her. She twisted around so she was facing him. He blonde locks fell into her eyes. He laughed and brushed them away. Smiling he lend down, for a kiss….

"Hey lil bro! The sudden sound startled the two apart.

They looked to see a very handsome boy. He had brown spiky hair, nice smile, and a great body. He walked with confidence. In deed his ego did exceed average boundaries.

"oh, hey Dustin" His sibling answered back, wishing he hadn't come in. Dustin simply smiled but looked towards the girl.

"Hey Helga…" it made her blush. He was a total hottie.

"What's up?" she managed to squeak out. The brown haired boy broadened his smile.

"Nothing, I was fixing to go get something to eat. Wanna come?" Helga nearly fainted.

"Sure!" she blurted out a little to excited

"We'll meet up with ya later bro!" Dustin slung his arm around Helga and they walked out.

**(End of Flashback)**

Helga jumped awake. She'd had another flash back dream. She rubbed her hands down her face. Often, she wished she's just stop having them. Why she had them, she didn't know, but they haunted her almost daily. Like constant reminders of past mistakes. She sighed and looked at the large grandfather clock they had in the den. 3:24pm. She's slept the day way. Her ears perked up as she heard the large front door open and gently shut.

"Mom!" the voice echoed through the house.

"I'm in here!…what's wrong?"

Ace poked his head in the doorway. "Nothing, just wondering where you were

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The whole family sat at a large dinner table. It was very old school. Parents at the end, kids in the middle. They ate in almost silence.

"Ace you didn't show up for work today…" Dustin said sternly, as he twirled some pasta around his fork.

" I know, I forgot…." He mumbled and poked at his dinner.

"Sorrys not good enough son."

"Well, iv been thinking that maybe I don't want to do this anymore." His father dropped his fork.

"You're not quitting! We got to have those fall pictures!" he yelled

Annoyed by his father, he dropped his fork and retorted " Well get Dia to do it! I'm tired of doing it!"

"Abercrombie does not pay top dollar just for one of the "Twins" to end up on their walls!"

Helga decided to put in "Dustin, its his decision. If he's tired of it then—"

" You stay the hell out of this!" her husband pointed a finger at her.

" What are you? A pussy! What guy doesn't want to be a model?" Diamond smirked smart-ass like. Through the whole confrontation Lindsey kept her mouth shut.

Ace's face tightened up and his brows furrowed tremendously. With a sudden surge of adrenalin he jumped up out of his seat. He angrily threw his napkin down.

"You know what! I'm freakin' sick of the way you think I'm below you! Last time I checked we were the same age!" he pointed a finger at Diamond. He then turned to his father. "You know what dad! I'm freakin' sick of the way you treat me! And you know what else! I'm really sick of the way you treat mom!"

Dustin stood, throwing his napkin down at the last remark. He'd by now sub come to his anger, and took as swing at his son. Ace being quicker than he dodged it with ease. However he too had sub come to his own anger. He punched back and hit. Smacking his father with full force in the nose, he knocked him back into his seat. The rest of the family jumped back from the table in pure aw.

Their father sat crooked in his seat. Blood began trickling down from his nose. He breathed in heavily. He examined his bloody nose with his hand. He son stood back breathing rapidly, his fists still clinched.

" It's a lil different having a bit of you own medicine isn't it…..dad"

_A/N: Okay that's chapter two. It's a rather dysfunctional family eh? I'm gonna try to update daily but if I don't get a new chapter up everyday…don't hate me. Please __J anyway R&R!_

****


	3. The Tides of Change

Disclaimer: Do I look like I own it? Lol

Chapter 3 

**Tides of Change**

****

Dustin looked at his black and blue nose in the mirror. The mirror lights danced across the swollen lump horribly. It made it look worse than it actually was. He frowned and cursed under his breath.

"It'll look better in the morning…" his wife lightly said, standing in the doorway.

"Nobody asked you!" He spat bitterly.

"…Just saying…" she walked back into their room. Dustin watched her go from the mirror.

He quickly finished what he was doing and headed to their room. Helga was at the foot of the bed turning back the covers. A task she did every night. He quickly lifted his shirt off. He then briskly walked over to her, picked her up and tossed her onto the bed. Before she could lift her self off, her husband leaped on top her and began attempting to clear her of her clothing.

She pushed on his chest desperately with her palms "Dustin! I don't feel like it!"

"I don't care! I'm feeling down and I wanna fuck! Get over it!" he replied coldly, emotionless.

"No…Stop!" Helga persisted again as he slid down her night pants. This only frustrated him more, and he backhanded her.

"shut up!" she did as she was told, and closed her eyes. Trying desperately to fight back the tears of physical pain and emotional hurt.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Morning came all too slow. Helga lay, curled up on her left side facing a wall and a closet. Semi-clothed and bruised and beaten from last night's events, she'd slept very little. However, fatigue new better than to attack her. She'd grown accustomed to sleepless nights.

The right side of the bed lifted up. It slightly pushed her to the edge of the bed further. She peeked an eye at him as he walked around the bed to the bathroom. He stretched his arms high above his head, flexing his muscles.

No, he wasn't a bad looking guy, and he knew it. He was very fit for a man of 41. Unlike a lot of men who'd let them selves fall into the beer belly trend. Too the world, he was a wonderful sight, to Helga, a terrifying one. Life styles of the rich and the famous, they aren't always what they're cracked up to be. Especially when everybody thinks you're perfect.

Her husband didn't go into the bathroom though. Instead, he went to the walk-in she was facing. She heard him shuffle some things around in there. A few minutes later he emerged with a new wardrobe. He had on a black shirt with 'Rock Star' written in white letters across the chest, and a pair of sand blasted pants. Helga continued watching him until he left the room.

She sat there for a little while before sitting up. She would of laid there a bit longer, but it was Saturday and he'd be expecting his breakfast soon. Hugging the sheet tighter to her she flung her legs of the edge of the bed. She limped to the closet her inner thighs hurt so badly. A while back she'd decided that the only reason they had sex was because it was another way for him to hurt her, control her, and feed his ego. There was no love in it anymore. It was just senseless.

She began sifting through her clothes carelessly. Jeans, shorts, skirts, tees, polos, sweaters, and fleeces. She had it all. He kept her well clothed. He kept his whole family very well off. In fact, she had clothes she could only recall wear once. She finally picked out a pair of " 7 " jeans and a tee that said "_Fender"_ on it. She slipped them both on and then wobbled down stairs. Her legs felt like she'd been riding a horse. More like fully galloping a horse. And the more she thought about it, the more she decided, in a sense she had.

When she entered the kitchen Ace was sitting silently reading a magazine at the bar. His father sat just a foot away with the paper. Helga, with out saying a world, walked over to the stove and turned on the burner. With her foot she pushed open a bottom cabinet, bent down and grabbed a skillet. She was probably going to be making eggs and bacon. Maybe some pancakes. She wasn't sure yet.

Dustin eyed her over the top of the paper, like he always did. He wanted things done just right. She knew he was watching too. And she'd always make sure she got things just right, or she'd pay for it later. Ace saw this out of the corner of his eye. It made him mad.

"Hey mom, want some help?" he spoke out. His mother turned. She looked at her husband. He gave her a "No" with his eyes.

She turned back around "um, no I got it…."

The boy saw the look however and continued to persist "no I wanna help…" he stood up

"No!…I got it…"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Helga ran her fingers over the photographs clipped to her mirror. She gently continued patting her face dry. Careful, as not to hit a bruised patch. Setting the cloth aside she jerked on of the photos loose, and stared at it. The corners of her mouth lifted into a slight smile. A rarity for her. It was a picture of her with all of her old friends. They were around 17 or 18. She couldn't remember. Oh how she missed them though. She often wondered what became of all them. Not wanting to rebel in the past she clipped the photo back in place and left the bathroom.

It was eerie quiet around the house. Everybody was out but her. She hardly ever went anywhere anymore. She could. Or rather, preferred not to. Too many questions got asked. The sudden urge for ice cream popped into her head. And her stomach. So, doing what any normal person would do, she when to the kitchen for some.

Luckily for her there was a tub of rocky road, with just enough left in it. Instead of dirtying a dish, she just decided to eat it right out the tub. She quickly grabbed a spoon from the drawer before heading back to her room.

"Well, hey baby!" Dustin stood in the living room. She stopped cold in her tracks. Her husband reeked of alcohol. And that was never a good thing, for her. She could smell it where she stood, in the kitchen door way.

"What are you doing!" he slurred

"Nothing…Dustin" Her heart started to race. She could feel her blood gel.

"Get up stairs!" he pointed towards the banister.

"Dustin, you're drunk—" in the time it took her to stay that sentence, he'd already marched over to her. The next thing she knew, she was being jerked around by him.

She screamed and dropped her ice cream. He pulled her around in front of him and shoved her forward. She stumbled, trying not to lose her balance. This he didn't like. He then grabbed the back of her neck and squeezed. This put a tremendous amount of pressure on her bruises. She felt like she was going to pass out. He became bored with that and shoved her forward on the steps.

She crumpled up like a baby. The wood burns on both her elbows were stinging like hell now. A sharp forceful blow hit her in the left shoulder, and she cried out.

"Get up stairs!" He yelled, his fist drew back waiting to deliver another blow. Helga tried to move. She really did. But she just wasn't fast enough by his standards. He punched her again between the shoulder blades. She felt her back crack horribly. She lurched upward trying to subside the pain. Laying on her side she slowly looked at him. Her vision was blurred substantially due to tears. He already had his shirt off. She started sobbing harder.

"Not again…" she whimpered. She snatched her up and began dragging her upstairs. Dead weight is what she was. She could barely move.

"Please…don't" he'd had enough. Dustin turned and punched her in the face. Her whole world came to a screeching pause. Her husband felt her body go even more limp than it was. She'd literally been knocked stupid. Cursing aloud he picked her up bride and groom style. Her eyes looked around lazily. Blood poured out of her broken nose. Colors, names, memories, and faces all ran together in her eyes. At the moment, she wasn't even sure who she was. She was aware, but not.

He managed to make it to their room. He stumbled towards the bed but fell short. He merely dropped her on the floor without a care. Mumbling incoherently she finally passed completely out.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Mornings are always hard to wake up to. Especially when the dream world is much more pleasant than actual life its self. That was Helga P. McGrath's motto to life by. She was jolted out of her restless slumber by violent coughing, from herself. Rolling over to her side, she spat out blood and was horrified. Her hand quickly jumped to her face…

"Ow! God Damn!" she hit her swollen nose. This made her cough more, and she felt extremely nauseated. Thinking that sitting up would make it better she did. But it only made things worse.

She stood up on wobbly legs and staggered to the bathroom. Collapsing at the toilet she puked into it. Her head pounded and her body ached. This was worse than a hangover, she thought. By a mile at least. It hurt to breath and air refused to enter or exit her nose. Why was she puking blood? She didn't know. Was she dieing? She would doubt. At that time she felt like just rolling over and letting the grim fate of death take over. She couldn't though. That would mean quitting. Never in her life had Helga Pataki ever quit anything. Further more that would mean letting _him_ win.

At that moment, she decided that she had to get out of there. It was becoming life or death. She had to win. She had to show that bastard what Helga P. McGrath could do. But most of all, she was tired of being beat on.

"Its time to check out ole' girl…"

_A/N: well, that was chapter 3. It was a rather rough chapter, I know. But it's all part of the story. I hope yall like it so far. If yall don't, oh well I guess. Anyway R&R please! __J l8er!_


	4. Move, Get Out the Way

Disclaimer: if I owned HA I wouldn't be writing this story. J

Chapter 4

**Move, Get Out the Way**

**(Flash Back)**

"No! You are not going with that boy and that's final!" a furious gray haired man yelled. He's teenage daughter stood a few feet away with an 'As-If' look on her face.

"Daddy! I'm 18 I'm old enough to do what I want!" she stomped her foot, emphasizing her point.

"I don't care! As long as you live under my roof you'll abide by my rules!" he was now at the front door, fixing to open it. His daughter was persistent though. More than he intended.

"You are so unreasonable!" she threw her hands up and walked away. She started up the stairs muttering words under her breath

"You'll thank me later Helga! That boy is no good!" her dad opened up the door.

"Yeah, what do you know!" she yelled back before rounding the corner to her room. Big bob sighed and shook his head. Where did he go wrong? Anyway he didn't like this boy she was seeing. Something about him gave Bob a bad vibe. And when Bob has bad vibes he is usually right. Or so he self-proclaimed.

Nearly an hour past since Bob and Helga and had their little disagreement. Helga sat in her room on her bed, sulking. She didn't like being told what to do, much less whom to date. She didn't appreciate him calling her boy 'no good'. The sun was starting to set. The later it got the more she got mad that she was missing a trip of a lifetime. She then heard a small tapping on her window. She cautiously went and opened the blind.

"Oh my gosh! Dustin! What are you doing out there?" she yelled to her boyfriend who was clung in a tree. She opened the window and he crawled in.

"You're dad isn't gonna stop me from taking you on that road trip to las vegas" he said, finally standing up.

" He's not gonna let me go…" she went and sat back down on the bed

"Who cares what he thinks. You're 18. You're an adult. Come on!" he pouted

"I should…." She mumbled. He walked over to her and put his forehead up against hers. "You know you wanna…."

"Okay!" she smiled, and then laughed. " Ill get my stuff packed…" she jumped up and walked to her dresser.

"Hey, I'm gonna go use the bathroom. Okay?" he said. She nodded and he tip toed out her room and down the hallway. However instead of going to the bathroom he ventured into the bedroom of Mr. And Mrs. Bob Pataki. Nobody was in there so it wouldn't hurt to take a peek. He had something else on his mind though. A little revenge/ taunting shall we say? He went through his dresser till he found a pen and pad. On the pad he wrote:

_Bob,_

_Hey, by now I would think you realize your daughter is gone. Guess what? She's with me! Yeah the one you hate. Mr. Pataki, I want you to know that it's nothing that you did, and its nothing that you didn't, God gave that girl the perfect body and now I'm all up in it. She's not a tramp or a whore. She just likes getting her F on and its good. Real good. Sleep tight Mr. Pataki! You're daughter wont…_

_-Dustin_

**(End of Flash Back)**

Helga snapped out of her daydream. Wow, she thought, her father was so right. She only wished she been smart enough to listen. She sat in her closet, rooting through stuff. Searching for a long lost possession. She tossed shoebox after shoebox aside. She still couldn't find it though. She became worried that he'd found it some how.

Roughly two weeks had passed since she'd decided to leave. She was making the move gradual. She'd starting packing up things here and there. Sticking things in her SUV when he wasn't home. What made her laugh, however, was that he was too self absorbed to notice. She wasn't the only one leaving. Ace and Lindsey were right there with their mom. One child was left out though, she knew. She'd realized he'd never go.

He'd never abandon his father. Her boys were almost spitting images of their father, but only one acted the part. Diamond McGrath may not have expressed outrageously violent tendencies yet, but he shared and over inflated ego with his dad. But given time he'd surely end up like him.

This hurt Helga the most. The idea that one of her 'Babies' was on a path to nowhere. She'd made the decision not to tell him she and his siblings were getting ready to leave soon. For he'd surely inform Dustin or her plans. Helga and Diamond hardly ever spoke anymore. When they did, Diamond only ever had negative things to say.

When it all filed down, Helga knew she only had her self to blame for this. She was to blame for his whole personality and outlook on life. She'd let him grow up in an abusive home, because she was to coward to leave. Not now though. Helga G. had taken the last hit.

She finally found what she was looking for. She sighed in relief. It was an old withered 'Nike' box. It was flimsy and dusty. A slight smiled formed upon her lips as she gazed at it. She opened it and removed the ugly fabric covering the object in side. A gun. True, she didn't seem the type that would on a gun, and technically, she didn't intend to own it. It had been a bizarre gift from Big Bob a few years back. The words he said when he gave it to her still rang as clear as a bell in her head

'You use it if ever you feel the need. That's why I bought it.'

She knew her father knew what Dustin did. She was quite ashamed too. Her dad didn't raise her to wimp out. He was Big Bob Pataki, Beep King. It's my way or no way, no highway option! Dustin was going to find out about the Pataki bloodline that runs through Helga.

"Well dad, its time to use this puppy for good" she ran her slim fingers over the 9mm. She picked it up. It was heavier than she remembered. Then again, she was a lot weaker now. Helga sighed and put the gun back in its box. She had more packing to do. She'd be ready to leave soon, and she didn't want to leave anything valuable behind.

"Helga!" her eyes popped out and she felt her blood stop. He wasn't supposed to be home yet. "Where you at!" she listened to him climb the stairs. He sounded mad. Really mad.

She hurried to hide the shoebox, but stopped. As she stared at it, so many thoughts cruised through her skull. She didn't really want to be a punching bag today. Nor did she any other day, but what separated this day from them? Today she was finally ready to stand up and say, "stop hurting me!"

"Dammit Helga!" His footsteps got closer. He finally merged into their bedroom. His fists were tightly squeezed. He was ready for his anger relief. His wife however had other plans. Her heart was beating out of her chest, and she shivered with adrenalin. He looked at her dumbfounded.

"Leave me alone…" she said calmly, though she was about to scream. She held the gun by her side. She didn't know if it was loaded or not, it was just for scare.

"what the hell is this!" he yelled, taking a step closer. She popped the gun out in front of her and took a step back.

"Get away from me!" he stopped when he saw what she was holding. " Get out of here…so I can leave!" she barked out. The Pataki instinct was coming through. This was so hard for her to do. She felt like she was going to break apart. She didn't feel strong enough. But she had to do it. She had to get out.

"You think I'm kidding don't you! Get out of my way so I can leave!"

Dustin felt like punching a wall. Or her for that matter. He hated orders. However, his survival instincts took over, and he slowly began backing out the doorway. He cursed the whole way. "you're gonna be sorry for this later, I can promise you that" he spat

"Just get down stairs!" her husband stared at her with disgusts. But, he did what he was told. He may have been a jerk, but any intelligent person would do what they were told at gunpoint. As they mad the slow painful descent down the stairs, their children walked in. they all three stopped dead in there tracks and stared.

"What's going on?" Ace, finally said

"We're leaving." Helga calmly answered back. They finally walked to the bottom of the stairs. Dustin was quick to back of her way.

"Mom, what the hell are you doing!" Diamond yelled.

"She's being a bitch that's what!" his father cut in.

"I'm leaving, if you want to go. Go get in the car. If you choose to stay with your sorry ass dad go ahead. " He gut wrenched at the words that rolled off her tongue.

"Why the hell would I go with you?" her son replied, extremely sarcastic like. This made her want to cry. She felt the tears rising. She held it in though. Just long enough to walk to her remaining too kids, and out the door. The tears really began to fall as she got into her car. Ace had decided to drive his car as well. She felt so guilty. She didn't know why she just did.

They hadn't been on the road very long. It was a quiet ride between her and her daughter. Both were still in some shock.

"Mom, where are we going?"

Her mother breathed in a long sigh. "Hillwood…"

A/N: alrighty! Chapter 4 is done! She finally stood up for her self. Well, with a lil help from ole Bobs gift. Any ways R &R. For all you loyal reviewers, and you know who you are, I thank you ever so much!


	5. Secrets Come Out

Disclaimer: hey, hey, you know the drill.

Chapter 5 

**Secrets come out**

The rain poured down in large fat drops. Small rivers ran down the sidewalks, flowing into the gutters or across the streets. The sun had set by now, but not be for a brilliant sunset show of the ski. The weather had just mysteriously gotten bad. Helga stood on a porch. She wasn't sure if it was the correct one, but it was the last known residence of the individual. Timidly, she knocked on the door. The rain beat down harder, shivered violently and hugged her coat tighter to her.

She knocked a little harder. She hadn't thought that maybe he might not be home. He probably had a life. Who was she to just show up out of the blue? She sighed a long breath of disappointment, as the wind whipped around her. Just as she was about to turn and leave, the door flung open. A tall shadowy figure stood in the middle with light pouring out from the sides. Helga squinted a little.

"…Arnold?" she finally asked

"H-Helga?…is that you? What are you doing here?" he stepped forward out of the light.

"I couldn't take anymore of your brother…" she dropped her head. He's eyes opened a lil wider. He invited her in out the rain and she gladly accepted.

"What happened? What did he do?" he asked, leading her to the den.

"What hasn't he done…" she walked over and sat down in a chair.

Arnold cocked an eyebrow. He didn't understand. "I'm not sure I—is you're nose swollen?" he blurted out

"Dustin punched me,…" she said flatly. He drew back in shock. "When!"

"About two weeks ago. No, it's not the first time." She stared at her lap, ashamed.

"Oh, Helga…" he got up and walked over to her.

"I just…I don't know where else to go. I'm sorry for just showing up here but, I need help, I can't go back there!" the tears began coming again. Arnold put a friendly arm around her for comfort.

"Where are your kids at?" a concerned look splashed on his face.

"Ace, and Lindsey are at the Hotel. Diamond wouldn't come. He stayed with that bastard." She sniffed, and wiped her eyes. Arnold opened his mouth to correct her about his sibling, but didn't…knowing it was true.

"Hey, you can stay here if you want. It wouldn't be any problem. And ill help you with anything you need. Anything for an old friend." He smiled, and he made her smile. "But, first…I think we have some catching up to do"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

"…And so there you have it. My own personal hell…" Helga finished before taking a big swig from her Pepsi can. Arnold traced the lip of his can with his finger. Taking all of what he heard in.

"I had no idea. You should of told me."

"I never told anyone…" a sharp silence then broke between them. It didn't last long though. Helga had a question. "Arnold, why is he like that?"

The man fidgeted with his drink for a few seconds before setting It down on the table.

"My mom was married to a man before she married my dad…" he slowly began "…see, that's Dustin's father. My mom divorced that guy because she said he abused her. That was when Dustin was about 2. However the courts found Dustin's father more fit as a parent at the time because he had a job, house, ECT. My mom was devastated. At the time my dad was a really good friend of hers. She said he's the only thing that got her through that rough patch. Eventually they got married and had me. My mom was determined to get Dustin back, so that's why they left me, to go back for him."

"I guess they didn't get him in time…"

"11years of witnessing a certain behavior. It takes hold…" he nodded

"Sometimes id think he'd take his anger out on me just for fun. Its like he was trying to prove something. To be better than something." Her body ached just thinking about it.

"Dustin was always a lil rough with me, but Helga, if I had no idea he was like that."

"I know, nobody did."

"How are your kids handling this?" he poked

"Both of them were ready to leave. I feel so horrible. They shouldn't have had to grow up with that. Like you said behaviors take root. There lives were shit. Because of me! They've had everything they've ever wanted but a mom and dad that loved each other. And that's not right. They deserve better than that."

"Helga, its not your fault. You are not a bad parent. You've just had some personal struggles. They don't hate you. They never will." He leaned forward, trying to persuade his guest

"But what about Diamond? He wouldn't come. Dustin has gotten to him that much!" she raised her voice

"And how long do you think he'll stay? You're gone, that means Dustin's got nothing to take his anger out on but Diamond. I willing to bet, one punch and he'll be down here faster than lightning."

"I don't want him to hurt my child…" she wiped her eyes. She could feel the tears coming once more.

"Me either. But if it takes that to make your son realize then its worth it. Right?" Arnold slapped his knee with his hand. Helga nodded but kept staring at her lap. He could tell something else was on her mind. At this time a lot of things were but, something big it looked like.

"What else is wrong?" he picked up his drink can for a swallow. Helga hesitated for a moment. She was really struggling with her self at the moment.

"I think…" she paused "I think…I might be pregnant again..."

Her male occupant nearly choked on his drink. He coughed and finished swallowing it. After a few big breaths he was okay. A little bright red but okay. " For real?"

"Yeah, well needless to say, I was also his lil sex toy for whenever. And well, drunks aren't the most reliable at remembering to put things on…" she got very touchy. "…Oh, I hope I'm not though"

"But if you are…?"

She sighed and semi-rolled her eyes "…I suppose that's just something ill have to deal with. I really hope I'm not though. I'm 37; I have 3 teenagers, ill be putting two of them through college at the same time soon. I don't need, nor want another one."

"But you know if you are, you'd love it just the same" he stated

"Football head, that's not the point. The point is…I got my control in that area taken away by him. It's not fun."

"I get what you're saying." He nodded. For the first time almost all night, Helga cracked a small smile. "Arnold, are you by any chance a phyciatrists?"

He laughed, "How did you know?"

"Well…" she laughed too "you've been analyzing me all night."

"I'm sorry…" he blushed a little.

"No, its okay. I really needed somebody to talk to." She stretched her arms above her head and yawned. " Well, I really need to get back to the hotel." She stood up

"You sure you don't wanna stay?" he stood as well

"Nah, ill be fine. Iv gotta start learning to do things for myself now. And now happens to be the perfect time to start." He escorted her to the door. He watched her as she got into her SUV down the street. As he watched her taillights disappear into the night street he decided right then an there, tomorrow morning, he'd be paying his big brother a visit.

_A/N: alrighty. This chapter was a lil bit subtler. She's finally let out her deep dark secrets she's held for years. The dramatic parts aren't over, no there's more to come. This is just a smooth patch of sand. Okay dokey, R&R guys! Please! L8er! _


	6. Family Fued

Disclaimer: …Why state the obvious

Chapter 6 

**Family Feud**

"Daddy! We have got absolutely nothing to eat in there!" Diamond shouted, walking into the den, waving an empty cereal box.

His father looked away from the TV annoyed. He gave him a sarcastic look. "…What are you telling me for? You have money and a car, go buy you something to eat!"

The boy grumbled in frustration and stomped back into the kitchen. The place was a wreck. The whole house was out of place. He and his father were horrible housekeepers to begin with, but since he's mother had been gone, it had gotten worse. No food, the clothes didn't get washed everyday, or the floors swept. Dare he say he missed her? Nope, he was hardcore like that.

"Hey Diamond!" Dustin called from the den. Diamond rolled his eyes and walked back that way.

"What?" his attitude punctured through.

"Who was that slut that was here last night?" he sat up in his chair.

"Dad, that was Jessica, My girl friend. She's not a slut."

"That girl had a nice body. Has she ever modeled?"

Diamond rolled his eyes, wondering where his dad was going with this. "…I don't think so, why?"

"Abercrombie needs some new girl models." He laced his hands behind the back of his head.

"Well, ill tell her." He turned to walk away but stopped. "Ya know her older sister is one of your models. Alex Tynes. The hot blonde on the store bags."

Dustin looked over to him and smiled. "No kidding? Her sister huh? That girl is a piece too ill tells ya. I've been banging her for a while now."

Diamond's eyes got huge. He didn't want to know all that. He would of preferred if he didn't. His dad had been cheating on his mom? For how long? His mind clogged up with about a million questions as he backed out the doorway. He didn't say a word as he left. He just walked away.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Arnold looked around intently, trying to determine where he was. He hadn't met his dead line of seeing his brother the next day. It was approximately 6 days later. He cruised down an open two-way road with beach on either side. Considering the idea he might be lost wasn't on his thoughts. He simply just didn't no where he was. However, he decided to follow this stretch of road a little further before turning around.

True, he could of asked a certain someone for directions, but he didn't want that certain someone to know. Sneaky? He would classify it under that. But it was his brother and he had a right to know what was going on, and why. The open road he was on finally lead into a pair of open iron gates. They were connected to two stonewalls. On the right wall a golden plate sat comfortably in the upper center reading _"Sea Surf Estates"_.

"This is it" he said. Directions…he didn't need them. He slowly accelerated down the cobblestone street. Long drive ways with magnificent houses connected to them popped up. They were huge, and occupied by doctors, lawyers, business tycoons, an occasional movie star and…. what ever his brother did.

"Big bro must be doing quite well for him self…" Arnold slightly frowned. Jealous? Just a little. Once again Dustin had found away to out do him.

Cruising into a cul-de-sac, he saw a lovely stucco house. Upon reading the address he knew he was in the right spot. He cheated a little. Maybe he had…some directions. Thanks to the good ole' Internet. He drove his car up into the driveway. Just the drive way alone was a beautiful sight. It actually run on top of the garage. After you entered into the brick road it split. The right side went down into a two-car garage. The left side stayed elevated and went around up to the house.

The house, even more amazing. Arnold continued gaping as he parked his car on the left side. He finally shut his mouth at the fear he may drool. He got out of his car and walked to the edge of the driveway and peered over at the two-car garage below. There was a railing that separated the elevated drive way from the below drive way and garage. It was like a small deck. He noticed both garage doors were open.

A black Mercedes Convertible was about ½ way pulled in to his home. On the right, a red old school Hummer was completely out of its cave. They both sparkled like diamonds. The blond shook his head and walked to the front doors. He felts so tiny on the porch as he rang the doorbell. He didn't wait long until the door swung open. To his surprise it revealed a tall, tan, muscular blonde youth. Arnold was shocked at how much he looked like his brother. The boy did look ticked off too.

"Hey, is your dad home?" Arnold cleared his throat. Diamond gave him a funny look, obvious that he didn't know who he was.

The boy backed into the foyer "dad! There's a guy here to see you!"

"Well, who is—"Dustin entered the foyer and stopped short. Arnold observed is sibling keenly. He wore an icon tee with a picture of Elvis on it, and pair of paint splatter jeans. His brown hair was spiked in the front with a slight brush over. It was clear his brother was trying to keep his youth. And from what Arnold saw, he was going a really good job. He was definitely "_Sea Surf Estate's" _Brad Pitt.

"Hey…" Arnold nodded.

"What brings you around here?" the older sibling walked towards him. He walked with confidence. A walk that said 'I'm bad ass and I know it'

"oh you know, just driving, killing some time, haven't seen the place, what the hell did you do to Helga!" Arnold elevated his voice

His brother glared at him. "…You know where that bi— where she is?"

"Dude, what the hell is your problem?" he gawked. Dustin pushed him out the doorway. Arnold stumbled backwards onto the porch. It was a pretty hard shove.

"Listen here short man! You don't show up at my house telling me how to treat my wife and that I have a problem!" Dustin boomed, as he pointed his finger at his brother. Arnold now understood completely what Helga was afraid of. He was a scary guy.

"Ya know what!" he raised his voice back "…I came here with a shred of hope that maybe she was exaggerating some! But obviously she's not! And I hope she nails your ass to the wall in court! I hope she takes you for all you've got!" he stepped off the porch. His brother stared at him in disbelief. Nobody had ever stood up to him like that before. " I hope somebody kicks your ass someday!" with that, Arnold turned and started walking back to his car, leaving his brother still staring in aw.

Diamond stood and watched the whole ordeal from the foyer. He hadn't recognized that, that was his uncle Arnold. Was he having second thoughts about staying? Nope, he was hardcore like that.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Helga sat at the foot of her bed, head in her hands. She felt sick. Which was a very bad thing. She flopped back onto the horribly uncomfortable bed. She missed her duck down bed so much. Sighing, she rolled over onto her side and curled into a ball.

"Oh God, please just let it be a virus…" she prayed aloud

"Mom, you all right?" her daughter poked her head in the door connecting the rooms. Helga sat up.

"I'm, fine…" she answered…rather unsure of herself.

"You look sick…" Lindsey walked to the bed. She sat down on the corner.

"…I'm just tired and stressed…" she sighed

"Oh, okay…well I'll let you rest then." She smiled and left the room leaving Helga to drift off into a restless sleep

**(Flashback Dream)**

"No Helga, you are not gonna do that!" A raven-haired girl stated leaning over a pool table, taking a shot. She was a bit drunk but it didn't matter.

"You know it! I'm gonna dominate pipe!" Helga hopped up on the side of the table and sat.

"I dunno, you might have other plans during that time…" Rhonda smiled, shooting the cue ball into the hole.

"What are you talking about?" all of her friends started smiling. Dustin walked through them till he stood in front of her. She smiled at him suspiciously and looked around.

"What are you up to?" she laughed and poked him in his gut. Dustin pulled out a small velvet box and got down on one knee

"Helga…"

Her hands flew up to cover her face. "Oh my God!"

"Will you marry me?"

"Oh my God!"

"Well…?"

"…Yes!" Her new fiancé jumped up and grabbed her, giving her a death grip hug.

**(End of Flash Back Dream)**

'Knock Knock'

Helga jumped out of her dead sleep. Beads of sweat ran down her forehead and she swiped them away.

'Knock Knock'

"Okay, I'm coming!" she got up and answered the door. It was Arnold.

"Oh hey, come in" she motioned

"I went to talk to him today…" he blurted out. Helga stopped and rolled her eyes.

"Why!" she whipped around

"I just wanted to see…" he looked to the floor

"See what? You didn't believe me!" she tossed her hands in the air

"No! I just wanted to talk to him. He flipped out on me. Helga, I don't see how you stayed with him as long as you did."

"…. Loves a crazy thing" she paused "did you see Diamond?"

"Yeah, I did. He looked okay." Helga sat down on the bed.

"That's quite a home yall have there…" Arnold changed the subject.

"I hate it…" she looked up "…I was such a prison…"

"What does he do for a living?" he walked over and sat beside her.

"He owns his on modeling agency" she said casually. "What's with all the questions…?"

"Well, honestly I thought yall were just an average American family. I figured yall were just gonna have a quiet civil court. I had no idea this could be a high dollar celebrity court."

"It wont be though. He won't hire the top-notch lawyer. He'll try to do it him self because in his eyes he does no wrong and he thinks he's smarter than me."

Arnold shrugged. "Are you sure he'll do that though?"

"Most likely. Like I said he thinks he's so bad, and so much smarter than me. He doesn't know that that his dear ole wife is in deed up to date on things. Sneaky? Yeah he thinks that too." She slightly laughed, "…I'm not oblivious to his little affairs with his models. If anything I can tell ya which ones he'll go after before he does."

" I hope you're right "

she flopped back on her bed "I'm counting on his habits…"

A/N: chapter 6! Yaaay! Okay, the next chapter or so will be kinda in depth on Arnolds story. R&R people! For those of you that already do I love yall guys! For everybody else…come on you can do better! Review! It keeps me motivated! Lol. L8er


	7. Love Hurts

Disclaimer: must we go through this every chapter! Lol :-D

Chapter 7

**Love hurts**

Dark, shady, quiet and gloomy. These are all the terms that could be used to describe the McGrath estate. Light punctured through small crevices in the blinds and curtains, and cascaded to the floor. Upstairs, two lumps snuggled together in a bed for warmth. It wasn't cold but the morning air was known to be a bit chilly. In the midst of the silent bliss, the shrieking cry of the doorbell echoed through the hallways. The pair jumped. The male figure sighed and got out of the warm bed.

He shivered and slipped on his boxers. His feet froze on the hardwood floors as he trotted down stairs to the door. Before he got to it, it ran again. He opened the door and was greeted by a police officer.

"Dustin M. McGrath?" the officer asked

"Yes sir. What can I do for you?" Dustin answered back with his fake politeness

"Mr. McGrath, you are being served with papers from a Mrs. Helga McGrath." He handed him a packet of neatly pressed white papers. Dustin took the papers and frowned, flipping through them.

"This cant be right!" he raised his voice a little.

The officer rocked on his feet forward "its correct sir."

"Is everything alright down there?" a skinny, slutty looking blonde wrapped in a sheet called down from the top of the stairs. The officer raised an eyebrow and looked at Dustin.

"And you acted surprised…" he sighed and walked back to his patrol car.

The furious homeowner slammed his door shut. He then punched it. The girl on the stairs jumped, and started backing up the stairs a little.

He crumpled up the papers. "No!" and threw them down.

" Are you okay?" the girl squeaked out, afraid. She clutched her sheet to her tightly.

"Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! That slut!" he didn't seem to notice, he just kept pacing around and yelling.

"I think I'm gonna go…" she stated. Dustin eyeballed her very irate.

"You stay right there!" he retorted. He breathed in heavily but then he stopped. "…I'm sorry…" he lied "…Helga is serving me with divorce papers and is trying to take my kids away. I mean, obviously its over between us but I want my boys and baby girl."

Being not the brightest bulb in the box, she bought into his lies.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

A ways down the road, the officer drove his car, talking on his cell phone.

" Yeah, he got the papers" he laughed into the phone

" Thanks stinky" a familiar feminine voice answered.

"Oh, Helga, before you go, I think its only right I tell you that there was some blonde girl there with him."

A short silence erupted the air before a laugh pierced through "…it doesn't surprise me. Besides, it's not my problem any more.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

"So, are you looking to divide yalls things evenly?" Arnold asked. He sat at his desk, hands laced behind his head. His dear friend had shown up at his office for some advice.

"No, I'm not. I want everything" she slammed her hand on the table. He sat back and slightly smirked.

"Helga, that's a bit…un-realistic."

"Look, he came into that marriage with barely a dime to his name. If it weren't for my short-lived surfing career and my heiress money, that man wouldn't be where he is today. My money built his business from the ground up!"

Arnold sat forward "Okay, okay I—"

"I'll be more detailed. I want the cars, the boats, the summerhouses, and my money. He can keep the living house."

"Just out of curiosity, how much is your half?" he rubbed his cleanly shaven chin.

"I'm not telling you…you'll make a big deal out of it" she sat back in her chair. Arnold, now even more curious, leaned forward even more.

"Oh come on. I wont. I promise."

"$24.2 million…" she muttered. Arnold nearly choked.

"I told you, you would freak out." She rolled her eyes

"Helga, that is a lot of money! You act as if it's a casual thing." He stared at her.

She looked at her lap. " I know this sounds bad but, to be honest, its not a big deal to me. I grew up wealthy. When I was 14 my dad hit the jackpot with his new line of beepers and cell phones, and my trust fund just got bigger. Surfing reeled in a couple of bucks. I've just…never known any different…"

Arnold nodded. "Well, I would like to say I understand, but I don't. So ill just take you're word for it." He paused for a moment "what about your kids? You don't think he'll try to fight you for him?"

"Unlikely. I hate to say it but he could care less about them. They're just material possessions to him." She sighed and tapped the arm of her chair. "Stinky served him with papers today."

"I bet he flipped out…" his eyes got big

"No, Stinky said he kept his cool." She sat up and began fidgeting with a pen on his desk. "…He had one of his tramp models over." She rolled her eyes.

Arnold scowled. "…He really has no respect…" Helga nodded in agreement.

" So football head, I've been here for about 3 weeks now and I've heard nothing about you. There's no Mrs. Arnold McGrath?"

He laughed and leaned back in his chair. "…Not anymore"

Helga's eyes got wide. "Who, what, when, where, why!"

"…Rhonda" he blushed

"Rhonda! Rhonda Lloyd!" she gapped "how'd that happen!"

"Hey, opposites attract. We had chemistry"

"Okay, okay. How long were yall married?" she leaned forward

"6 years" he calmly said.

" So what happen?" Helga spoke more seriously now

"Um, I came home one day and she had left me a note. She said I was holding her back, and that she was headed for New York." He smiled now, even though it tore him up inside. He had every right to be mad at Rhonda. To hate her, but he didn't. Forgiveness was in his books.

"…Have you talked to her since"?

"Oh yes" his eyes lit up "…she called me about a month ago to tell me she was getting remarried to some Broadway producer. Apparently a real hotshot. I guess he bought her heart with all the money in the world. Something I couldn't give her."

Helga picked up a picture frame sitting on the corner of his desk. She hadn't noticed. It was a picture of Arnold standing behind Rhonda with his arms around her waist. They both had ear-to-ear smiles. They looked happy.

"Holding her back?" she asked, "That's all she said?"

"She said she had to get out of Hillwood. I think it had a lot to do with the death of her mom. Her dad moved back to Europe. I guess this city was just too full of bad memories. And I guess, maybe she could of just stopped loving me."

"Oh wow, I didn't know her mom died."

" Yeah, she wasn't the same after that. I guess it opened her yes up to reality." He shrugged

"Say, what happened to the rest of the old gang?" Helga sat the picture down. She was deliberately changing the subject. She could sense Arnold was getting upset. Arnold smiled and was great full for the change.

"Well, phoebe and Gerald are married, which was a shocker to no one. They have a girl named Emmy that is 15 and a boy named Zakk that's 13. Harold is a preacher in the synagogue downtown. He marred patty, they have no children and I consider it for the best." He laughed. Helga smiled. She's missed so much.

" Sid owns a Harley shop. He's real popular with the ladies. And dear ole' Stinky, as you know, is a police officer. Married to Lila. They live in Stinkie's daddy's old house. I guess it kinda fits them."

Arnold shrugged. Helga smiled. She was enjoying hearing all this. She missed everybody. However it saddened her that she highly doubted anybody remembered her.

"Well I have to go. I gotta go see my parents. Ill see you later?" she asked

"Oh, yeah sure. Ill talk to ya tonight"

"Okay, take care. Bye!" she stood up and excited the room. After she left, Arnold picked up the picture on his desk and looked at it. She smiled at it even though it tore him up inside.

"…_And I wonder if you ever thing about me anymore,_

_And I wonder if you ever thing about me when your bored,_

_And I wonder if you ever thing about me when your hanging in New York,_

_And I wonder if you still think Bono writes his songs for you, _

_And I wonder if the reasons why you left me were un- true,_

_And I wonder if you've given more excuses that I got from you,_

"…_Cuz girl you mean,_

_So much to me,_

_I wish that we,_

_Could start it over,_

_Start it over,_

_I don't need,_

_Your sympathy,_

_Or apologies,_

_Still I'm staring in my coffee cup at 6am,_

_And I cannot give up,_

_And I wonder if you're happy or just glad to see my scarred,_

_Did he by your heart with Visa or his platinum master card,_

_I am bending over backwards to get close to you,_

_But still I feel so far,_

_Cuz girl you mean,_

_So much to me,_

_I wish that we,_

_Could start it over,_

_Start it over,_

_I don't need,_

_Your sympathy,_

_Or apologies,_

_Still I'm staring at my coffee cup at 6am,_

_And I cannot give up…"_

Diffuser "Start it over"

A/N: And the story keeps on rolling. How did yall like Arnold's small story? Which isn't finished by the way. Well tell me what yall think. R&R! Come on people! Do what Nike says! Just do it! L8er


	8. A Clear Message

Disclaimer: yeah, I don't own it. Sorry.

Chapter 8 

**A Clear Message**

****

" Dustin, there's not a lot I can do" A short balding man sat behind a large desk. His angry client passed about the room.

"Well why not! She's trying to take virtually everything away from me!" he shouted back. The lawyer twitched.

" That's for the courts to decide it's my job to try to make it as fair as possible." He spoke, sounding very redundant.

"What about my kids!" Dustin stopped and took a breath

His lawyer looked at his desk and bit his lip "…naturally she has the maternal rights to them. Unless you can prove her unfit"

"I'm the sole freakin' provider for those kids!" he yelled again.

" We could argue that Mrs. McGrath has never had a common job and is there for unfit as a parent. However, that would be a stretch. Lets face it Dustin, she has money too, and she always will."

Helga's Husband's face-hardened. This wasn't what he wanted to hear. He eased over to the back of the wooden chairs that sat in front of the desk. Putting his hands on the back of one of them he squeezed until his knuckles were white.

His voice was shaky "…and so do I. I refuse to let that whore tear away everything I've ever worked for!"

"Dustin, please, clean up the language. I understand that you're upset with this, but pitching a fit about it like a child isn't going to help it." The balding lawyer shuffled his papers together. He stacked them in a neat pile and looked at his client sarcastically. Dustin shoved the chair into the desk.

"You're fired!" he pointed his finger. He then stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

As Dustin walked to his Hummer in the parking lot, he whipped out his cell phone and dialed a number. He held the device to his ear as he unlocked his car and got in. Many miles away, Helga's cell phone rang. She stopped folding her clothes for a second to check it. The ID read "Dustin" she scoffed and threw the phone on the bed.

Dustin drew his phone back, disgusted. He snapped it shut with a click. He cursed to no one as he cranked up the car. The vehicle hummed smoothly as it was shifted into drive. It cruised down the pavement pointed in the direction of the local ABC package store. Its owner had a date with an old friend.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Arnold sat at his desk, writing a report of one of his patient's mental states. His pen moved smoothly over the white parchment. However, he wasn't happy with it. His mind wasn't on it. It wondered everywhere. But mostly it wondered to... Rhonda. She made him miserable. Not meaning to. He just couldn't get her off his mind.

He put his pen down and run his hands threw his hair. Sometimes he almost felt sick because he couldn't be with her. No, Helga didn't mean to get him so riled up about it the other day. But she did. His heart was cracking open again. Not that it had healed or anything, time had started soothing the pain. But the other day was a few steps backwards.

He picked up his office phone and punched in a number. But before he got the last digit he hung up. "No, you can't do that!" he sat his sat his face in his hands. His heart got the best of him, and he dialed it again. As it rang, half of him hoped she wouldn't pick up, and the rest of him prayed she would.

" Hello?" the beautiful voice he'd longed to hear said.

"…R-Rhonda?" he stuttered

"Arnold? What are you doing?" he could hear lots of talking in the background

" I…I miss you. A lot" he said calmly.

"Arnold, I don't wanna talk about this. Now, I'm in the middle of a stage rehearsal and I—"

" Rhonda! Baby listen. You're busy…fine. Call me tonight. Please. I just want to talk, just one last time. I just…I just need to get some things off my chest…" there was a silence on the other end of a few seconds.

"…Okay." She finally agreed.

"That's all I ask…" he responded

"I've got to go now. Talk to you later. Chow!"

"Remember! Tonight!" he said before they hung up.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Some miles away, a very un-happy boy tried to make the best of things. He sped down the road with his friends. As his friends laughed, hooped, and hollered, he put on a false face of happiness.

"…Yo, man, this is such a sweet right!" his best friend, Dylan, said. He sat in the passenger seat doing the wave with this hand. It was a convertible so the wind was everywhere.

"Yeah, I like it a lot better than the Rover" answered Diamond. He too held his hand out the window and surfed air.

"Hey baby!" his girlfriend leaned up between the seats from the back. " Is your dad gonna let you drive the lambo to Michaels party tonight?"

He thought for a second and smiled "yup!"

"Dude! You so need to race Steven Davis' Countache in it!" Justin shook his hands in the air.

"Oh yeah, that would be so sexy" Justin's Girlfriend laughed. The two girls started giggling together. The drive laughed too. "Yeah okay. Whatever you say."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

"Hey Dad!" The clean, well-dressed teen descended from the stairs.

"What!" The usual annoyed voice answered from the den. Diamond walked into it. His father sat, drinking it up in his chair. This made the boy cringe.

"I'm gonna take Comet out tonight okay?" he shrugged

"Whatever just get out of here" Dustin growled

Diamond left with out saying a word. No good bye, no nothing. He mossied his self out side and down to the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th garages behind the house. He walked up to the 4th garage. He smiled and clicked a button on the car key chain. The door lifted revealing the beast within.

A lime green Diablo sat lifelessly in the shadows. 'Comet' as his dad had named it was anything but lifeless however. A gift from his dad to his mom, it was almost never driven. They'd owned the car for 7yrs and it maybe had been driven 10 times. Diamond always considered it a shame, and a waste.

He walked to the driver's side and clicked another button. The scissor doors whined and pushed up. He flopped down onto the high dollar yellow and green leather, and cranked it up. The tuner engine hummed beautifully. The door shut its self. He shifted into first gear and carefully eased out the garage, down the drive way and to his party.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

He laughed and whistled at all the pretty girls. He was strung out on something good. His eyes were blood shot and glassy. He was as high as he could be and he didn't care what he was doing. Making it his mission earlier, he was going to get him a piece of ass tonight. His girlfriend didn't matter. He didn't care. Somebody walked by and shoved a beer in his hand. Quickly, he chugged it.

Stumbling around the party he found an amber haired girl, to him, she looked perfect.

"H-hey there!" she smiled goofy

"Hey!" she smiled back

"You're hott! You k-know that!"

Her eyebrows rose. She gave him a sarcastic look " I think you just might be strung out…"

"D-don't worry baby. I'm still good to go…" he humped air and laughed.

"I don't think so" she turned to walk away

"Oh come on!" he said to the back of her. She just kept on walking.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Arnold waited intently by this phone. It was 9:30pm. His call should be there anytime. He hoped. He flipped on his TV to pass some time, and to calm his nerves. Nothing worth watching was on. Or nothing he cared to watch. The anticipation was eating him alive.

'Ring Ring' his hand quickly jumped to the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Arnold…" the voice he loved said. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, wow, I'm surprised you called" he said, playing it cool

"A Lloyd always keeps their word" she simply said, he could tell she was smiling. "…So what did you wanna talk about?"

"Do you love him?" He blurted out.

"What? What kinda question is that?"

"I just wanna know…"

"Well, if it's any of your business…yes I do" she stated

"As much as me?"

He could tell she was hesitating a lot. "…I don't love you anymore Arnold."

"I think you do. I know you do. I still love you. I think maybe I always will. Rhonda, we've been Divorced for 6months now, and I have never gotten a full explanation of how I was 'holding you back'" he leaned back in his recliner.

"I don't wanna talk about this…please..." she bargained with him

"I think I deserve a true answer for once. Was it money? Was it me? What was it Rhonda!"

"…I was afraid of disappointing you." He heard her gasp. He was making her cry.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Diamond trudged into his front door at a whopping 5:30am. He was beat to the ground with tiredness. He was still feeling some mild effects from the drugs he'd taken. He was a bit wobbly walking towards the stairs in his house.

"Boy where have you been!" a loud voice boomed making him jump. He turned to his dad slightly baffled.

"I was at a party, I told you!" he shot back, annoyed

"I didn't tell you, you could go, or take 'Comet'" Dustin dropped his Jack Daniels bottle. It broke in half on the stone tile flooring.

"Dad! Will talk in the morning! I'm not in the mood!" his son rolled his eyes.

"I'll teach you mood!" he yelled and darted across the floor towards his son. He snatched the boy up by his shirt and threw him into the stair railing. Diamond tried to stop his self from hitting hard but his body was stiff and tired. His back crunched against it hard.

Dustin didn't give his offspring time enough to fight back before punching him in the face. Diamond's head bowed back hard. He grabbed his face with one hand and rolled off the banister onto his hand and knees. His dad came up beside him and punched him in the ribs. The wind was knocked out of him and he couldn't breath. The boy thought he was going to die. As he gasped for much need air, Dustin jerked him up by his shirt, nearly ripping it off him. He run him across the room into a wall, and held him there.

"Daddy!" Diamond cried "Daddy stop!"

The cries only made Dustin crush him harder into the wall. "…What? You a sissy boy now? You like your brother now!" His son tried to fight back but he was just too tired and weak. His enraged father pulled him back from the wall, just to slam him back into it. He did it twice.

"D-daddy…" he murmured. Suddenly the pressure his body felt, left. His withered body crumpled to the floor in a heap. Blood was all over his face, his tee shirt, and his pants. He was so tired, and sore. He heard the footsteps leave, and he knew he was alone. With all the strength he could put forth, he reached into his pocket for his cell phone. He hit 3 universal numbers and put it to his ear.

"Hello? 911 emergency operator speaking!" the woman spoke out loud and clear

"I need h-help…"

_A/N: oh yeah! Chapter 8! Go me! Anyways. Yeah, I definitely cut Arnold and Rhonda's conversations off for a reason. Suspense! Muah ha ha! What do yall think? Dustin has really gone too far this time. R&R guys! Just do it! L8er_


	9. A Brush of Death

Disclaimer: I don't on HA

Chapter 9

**The Brush of Death**

Bright blue lights cut through the darkness like a razor blade. The cult-de-sac was anything but peaceful on that night. Neighbors gathered in their nightclothes and robes in the streets just to catch a small glimpse of the commotion at the McGrath estate. Several cop cars clogged the driveway. At the very top of the road, in front of the house, was an ambulance. Its back doors were open but nobody was in there, yet.

In the large house, Diamond lay on a stretcher, bruised and beaten. Two EMTs were kneeled beside him. One of them was carefully putting a neck brace on the boy. Diamond shivered as a light gust of wind that blew through the open front doors. He didn't hurt as bad anymore though. They had been generous enough to give him a painkiller to ease his body.

While the EMTs where busy doing whatever it was they do he looked past them to a group of cops chatting. They were in front of the stairs, one of them with his elbow propped on the banister. They seemed so…un-urgent, so un-rushed. This made him slightly mad. But what could they do? He knew his father had already fled after her dirty deed. He wasn't naïve. He finally decided not to worry about it right now. He returned his focus on the EMTs near him.

"Am I going to be okay?" he mumbled out, barely able to hear.

The one EMT by his side stopped what she was doing and smiled "I believe so"

Diamond nodded. He then glanced to the floor at a shiny object. It was his phone. He sighed and pointed a shaky finger to it. "Can you call my mom?"

The EMT once again stopped what she was doing. She followed his finger to the floor and picked up his phone. She looked at it and then looked at him again.

"Please…? It says 'moms cell'" he said

"Okay" she smiled

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Helga burst through a pair of hospital doors in hot pursuit. Her eyes were slightly puffy and red. Her two offspring trailed behind her, attempting to keep up with their distressed mother. They continued walking until they came to a hallway intersection. There they made a left and traveled about half way down it before coming to a certain room.

In the room, Diamond lay on top of the bed looking very drowsy. His shirt was pulled half way up and some bandages were wrapped around his torso. There was a doctor standing a few feet away looking at a clipboard.

Diamond turned his head to the side to see his mom "Hey mama"

"Oh my God" Helga blurted out and hurriedly walked to her son. She put her arms around his shoulders, hugging him, but being careful she didn't hurt him. She felt tears starting to sting her eyes. She let go of him and wiped her eyes.

"Is he okay? Doctor?" she turned to the MD and asked

"He's got several broken ribs, a fractured cheek and many contusions. He'll be okay though." He dropped the clipboard down to his side " you've got a tough boy there to take as much as he did"

Helga nodded and looked at her son.

"I'll leave you two alone" the doctor said and walked out. Ace and Lindsey walked in after the doctor left.

"Mama, I just don't know what happened. Dad…he just…snapped!" Diamond sat up and put his head in his hands. "I'm so sorry…"

Helga put her arms back around him "For what baby? You did nothing wrong"

" I'm sorry for being such a jerk to you. You've been putting up with dad for years…for us, and I was too selfish to care."

"I'm not mad. You're my child, nothing you do could ever make me love you any less" She answered him. This reassured him a lot, she could tell.

"Yeah man" Ace poked in "we don't hate you"

Lindsey smiled and nodded, agreeing with her older sibling.

"Knock, knock!" a deep voice called from the doorway. They all turned to look at almost the same time.

"I'm sorry, am I interrupting?" Arnold asked, looking around.

Helga stood up and walked to him "no, not at all" Before he could even walk in she grabbed him and pulled him into the hallway.

"Hey, what's up? How is he?" he said in a low voice, looking at her. She ran both of her hands through her dirty blonde hair.

"Arnold, I just don't know what to do anymore. He hurt my child!" she took a deep breath

"Put him away! Forget about just divorcing him. Lock him up! He hurt you, he hurt your kids! Isn't that enough!" He tossed his arms in the air. Helga looked at him, sort of confused like.

"That'll just piss him off even more…" she dropped her head down in defeat.

"Yeah, and he wont be able to do a damn thing about it!" he raised his voice slightly

"And what am I suppose to do when he gets out! Huh!" she looked at him, mild anger etching her face "He'll find me. It doesn't matter where I go he will find me"

"He hasn't found you yet has he?"

"He knows where I am he just hasn't come looking for me because of my parents and because of you!" she backed up and leaned against the wall. She sighed and ran her hands through her hair once more.

"What?" Arnold cocked an eyebrow "What do I have to do with it?"

"Arnold, are you brain dead? Do you really think if he came looking for me you'd let him take me?" she eyed him

"Of course not. You know that."

"And neither will my parents and he knows that!" Helga stuck her hands in her pockets "But I'm not gonna be able to use you guys for protection forever."

Arnold reached over and put his hand on her shoulder. "Will figure something out. Right now, I think your son needs you"

"You're right…" she said softly. They both nodded and walked back into the room.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

Not even an hour later, Helga, Arnold, Ace, Diamond, and Lindsey were back at the hotel were they had been staying for a while. Diamond lay curled up under the sheets of his mother's bed, sound to sleep. His two siblings were out taking advantage of the hotels indoor pool. It was around 8:00AM and the sun was pouring through any crack it could find.

Arnold and Helga sat at the small table provided by the hotel in her room. Each had a cup of coffee. They chatted quietly, not wanting to disturb Diamond, but at the same time keeping an eye on any concussions that could develop.

"Once again I'm sorry for calling you so early this morning" Helga took a sip of her coffee.

Arnold shook his hand "no, don't be. I wasn't asleep any way."

"Wow, you must be a very morning person" she cracked a small smile

"Nah, I just had a few things bother me." He drew little circles on the table with his index finger. "But, I wont bother you with them. You've got bigger ones anyway."

"Well, I've bothered you with my problems for a while now, so I think its only fair that I return the favor and listen to yours"

He smiled and nodded "okay, well…Rhonda called me. But, she didn't just call me I called her first a lil earlier. I've been putting off and putting off asking her the true reason why she abandoned me, and the other day when you were in my office you kind of put that up on a front burner."

"Oh, I'm sorry…"

"Nah, don't be. So I called her and she was busy so I asked her to call me back later that night and she agreed. She did and I asked her why and I wanted a reason and I think I deserved to know."

"Well of course" Helga said

"She finally told me. You know what she said? That she was afraid of disappointing me! And I asked why and she told me that I made something of myself; I'm a relatively successful physiatrist. She though of herself as a failure because she was a house wife."

"That's why she left?" she gaped

"Yeah, she felt like she was letting me down by not doing anything with her life. I can't help but…maybe feel a tad be responsible for that. I mean, did I make her feel like that? I never looked at her as a failure. She was a good wife and that's really all I cared about."

"Well, I guess it's a personal thing too ya know?" Helga finished up her cup of coffee

"Yeah, I know. But it seems so…. stupid too. It's like why? Why would you up and abandon somebody you've been with for six years? Somebody that loved you more than anything." He sat back in his chair and sighed

"Why would somebody wanna beat up on somebody they supposedly love? I guess maybe only they know their motivations"

_A/N: I'm baaaaack! Whoot! I know I know it's been a while. So yeah, this is my chapter. Um…its kinda slow but yeah, I think it was needed. So R&R please! L8er_


	10. Touche'

Disclaimer: I don't on HA

Chapter 10

**Touché **

(_Month later)_

Dustin sat at a very lavished restaurant having lunch with a fellow business friends. They laughed and discussed ideas for the spring and summer modeling seasons. Things had quieted down between him and his estranged wife. Neither had seen or spoke to one another in weeks.

"waitress! Check please!" Dustin flagged down the girl

"yes sir" she responded and walked away

"so are we gonna do the girls topless for spring?" a guy named mike asked "for the catalogs?"

Dustin sat and thought for a moment "while that my sound like a good idea I got in trouble for it back in the late 90s"

"we can just do them like we normally do, covering themselves up but…more…tease-ish" Bradley, the 3rd guy sitting next to Dustin spoke up.

"yeah, that's what I was thinking" Dustin answered back

The waitress returned with a black book and handed it to Dustin. He opened it up and smirked

"boy, you guys are pricey" he chucked

"oh let me get that!" mike spoke up

"nah, nah I got it" Dustin replied. He got his wallet out and placed a debit card in it. He then handed it back to the waitress and she left

"so, have you heard from you-know-who lately?" mike smirked

"nope! And don't care to! That bitch is dead to me" he scowled back at his friend

"you better be careful"

"please, she's not gonna do anything" Dustin reclined in his chair and smiled

"sir.." the waitress came back "your card as be declined…"

Dustin shot up "what? Why? Did it say why!"

"insufficient funds it said" she bit her bottom lip

"…and suddenly she strikes again" mike said casually

Dustin stood up and grabbed the black book "God! That BITCH!"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Helga pulled up to her former home and parked her SUV. Two more vehicles filed in after her. She sat there, looking around and thinking, pulling together her clever plan. All this stuff was hers, and she was going to take it back. She'd let her presents die down for weeks now, but she was ready to show him she was still alive and well.

A quick sharp noise tapped against her window jerking her from her own mind. She looked over and rolled down the window to talk to her sons.

"so, what all are we getting?" Ace asked, squinting a bit because of the bright sun

"everything…"

She got out her car and started walking to the house, kids in hot pursuit

"I want yall to go get your jet skis, your motorcycles, the boat, Diamond, I want you to go get Comet."

"whoa, wait? Who's gonna drive the other truck?" he stopped

"Lindsey" she turned to face him

"but! Mom I don't have my license yet!" the girls eyes got big

"you have a permit, were just gonna have to break the law this time" Helga replied then kept walking.

The other three split off and went to go attended to the tasks they were told to. Ace went to get the boat and the motorcycles, Lindsey went for the jet skis. Comic headed down to the hidden garage behind the house for the Lambo, Comet. Helga headed into the house to get the important stuff out. She walked in to the dirtiest flats she'd seen.

Clothes were lying everywhere, the tiles looked like they haven't been swept in ages, and beer bottles and cans laid everywhere. She took note of several bras on the floor that weren't hers. She sighed in disgust and walked on. She went into the kitchen and saw it just got nastier. The dishes were piled up.

She quickly left that area and headed to the stairs. She walked up them and into their former room. It wasn't much better than the rest of the house. But if she had to rank it, it was the cleanest out of all of them. She went to her bedside table and opened the drawers. She got out all her personal belongings. She laid them on the bed and went to the closet for a box. She dumped out some of his stuff in a box and used that.

She next went to her dresser and opened it up, getting the rest her clothes, check books and stuff of the likes. She didn't leave a lot when she first left, but some stuff. After she was finished in their room she got her box and walked back down stairs. She dropped the box on the floor and went to one of the hall way closets. She opened and a baseball bat fell out.

She grabbed it before it could hit the floor.

"what the hell?" she picked it up and looked at it "since when did we have one of these?"

She then chuckled a bit "I could of used this one or two nights"

She then propped it against the wall while she got more stuff out the closet. She thought after that she'd go get some of the kids stuff but decided later to let them get what they wanted themselves.

She heard the door open and slam and didn't think much of it. It was one of the boys probably coming to see what was up.

"Ace? Diamond? I'm down the hall way!" she waited for a response but got none. She just heard the foot steps stop and head her way. Heavy footsteps.

"did yall have any trouble hitching up the boat?" she tried again

"nope…no trouble…at all"

She looked to the voice and jumped back from the closet.

"nice of you to come back dear, really nice" Dustin said, he was still fuming about lunch embarrassment

"…I see you drained the account…" he cracked his knuckles

"I didn't drain it…" she glanced at the bat leaning against the wall, behind the open doors "…I froze it…"

Helga grabbed the bat as fast as she could. She swung it as hard as she could at him. Dustin's eyes got wide as he saw the weapon being hurled at him. The threw his left arm up to shield the blow. The bat cracked against his arm bitterly causing him to retract it in pain.

"OW! GOD DAMN!" he yelled curling his arm to his body.

Helga stood back and watched him double up clutching his left arm to his stomach.

'_hit him again!' _ her mind screamed '_hit him again!_'

She started stepping backwards, bat still in hand. As soon as she saw him start inching forward she turned and took off down the hall way. She cut a left back into the kitchen area. As she made her way into it he ran in through the other door way. They stood for a brief moment staring at each other square in the eyes.

Helga stood behind the back half of the bar, in front of the stove, he stood in front of the island. He picked up one of the bar stools with his good arm and chunked it across the bar at her. She yelled and tried to block it with the bat. It clanked against her wooden shield and her fingers causing her pain and sending her into the stove. She sucked up the pain and ran to the right, heading for the dinning room area.

He darted to his left to catch her. As he ran behind her to catch up she stopped, turned and swung her bat again. This time it struck him in the shoulder. He yelled again, but this time, he grabbed the bat while she was still holding it. He jerked it, causing her to come back to him. He grabbed a hold of her shoulders as she fought him hard. He pushed her back before picking her up and throwing her over the dinning room table.

(_with the kids)_

Ace and Diamond met up behind the house near the garages. Diamond had moved the Lambo to the front and was now helping his brother load up the boat. They did so with complete ease and began to pull the watercraft to the front. As the come around to the front they noticed a familiar hummer parked up front.

"is mom in the house!" Aced panicked

"Oh my God, oh my God!" Diamond responded hurriedly opening the truck door and running towards the house. His brother followed him.

(_With Helga)_

Helga landed on top of it and then skidded off onto the floor, on the other side. Knocking a few chairs over with her. All was silent for a moment as he ran around to the other side. She met him by grabbing a chair and swinging it into him, hurting him once more. After he was hit, he grabbed the chair and jerked it away from her. He then flared back his fist and punched her as hard as he could in her shoulder and collar bone.

Helga was knocked off her feet once more. She landed with a hard thud. She rolled and got to her knees as fast as she could. As she went to step to her feet she turned as was met with another fist to the face. She slowly rolled back over onto her back and watched with blurred vision as he walked over her. With one last final blow she jerked up her foot and kicked him as hard as she could muster in the growing.

Dustin doubled up grabbing him self. He sank down to his knees, exhausted and in pain. Before he let himself go he pulled back once more and struck her again, and she was out cold. He then fell on his chest and breathed heavily. The pain of a dislocated shoulder and broken arm engulfed him.

The two boys burst into the house in a fit. They ran through it looking desperately for their mother. They ran through the kitchen and into the dinning area. They notice it had been disturbed. As they rounded the table they observed their mother out cold and their father curled up helplessly on the floor. A broken chair lay near them and an orphaned bat on the other side.

"Holy Shit…"


	11. Dont be Afraid to Fight

Chapter: 11

**Don't Be Afraid to Fight**

_**(Flashback)**_

"…_shake that ass for me,_

_Shake that ass for me,_

_Ah girl,_

_Shake that ass for me,_

_Shake that ass for me,_

_Come on girl_

_Shake that ass for me,_

_Shake that ass for me…"_

Rays of illuminated colored lights flashed around a foggy room. It blinked as the strobes flickered on and off. Dozens of bodies came into contact with each other, arms flaying and a beat being kept. The room was very hot and almost muggy because of all the body heat. Girls grinded up against the boys and the boys held on.

There were several booths around with varies people seated. These included the rich and the famous. In the back were the more private VIP booths. These were usually reserved by the Hollywood party girls or the "IT" girls as they were called by the press. Back across the room a familiar blonde jumped off the top of the bar. She ran her hands through her hair, removing it from her eyes. She laughed and turned back around to the bar, grabbed a martini and downed it.

Helga then threw her glass and proceeded to head across the dance floor area. She bumped and grinded through the crowd until she found one of her friends.

"Phoebe!" she latched onto her friends arm, laughing

"What!" phoebe laughed at her

Helga thought for a minute "I think I'm gonna go….back there" she pointed to the VIP section

"You do that!" her friend yelled over the crowd. Helga let go of her and headed towards the VIP area. Before she even got the chance to go back, she was met at the curtain by one of Hollywood's "IT" girls.

"Where do you think you're going?" the girl cocked a hip and asked, with an attitude

"To the VIP, why what is it to you!" Helga cocked an attitude back at her

"Ha, listen here little girl, I don't think so" the girl laughed

"Do you know who the hell I am! I'm Helga freakin' Pataki!"

"Aww, little surfer girl are we? Some one of know real importance" IT girl pointed a figure at her, sarcastically

Helga let her tendency of flaring anger, and drunkenness get the best of her. She took a swing at little miss perfection; striking her right in that pretty little nose that daddy is still paying for. By the time anybody had realized what had happened Helga was half way across the club. As she made her way to the door she was grabbed by two bouncers.

"Hey! What the hell?" she jerked her arms

"You're out of hear Mrs. McGrath"

They threw her out the doors and slammed them shut. Helga shouted some insults and select words back at the shut door. Seeing as this wasn't working she flagged down the valet parker for her car to go home.

The next day the tabloids read: "Surf rookie Helga Pataki sends a wave of pain over Brook Wilson's face." With a picture of Helga grinning wide eyed.

_**(End of Flashback)**_

"OWW!" Helga yelled as she came out of her unconsciousness. Her body ruthlessly jarred her back reality where it was absorbed by soreness and pain. She opened her eyes slowly, revealing a very intense bright light. Too bright, if you asked her.

"Oh God, am I dead" she mumbled to herself. No, this couldn't be heaven, she was in pain, and heaven isn't pain. She glanced to her side and her thought was confirmed. She wasn't dead. She saw other hospital beds and curtains and the whole nine yards.

She blinked some more and slowly, very slowly sat up in her bed. She had about a million wires and tubes in her arms, which limited her mobility.

"Mom? Mom you awake?" Ace rose up from his seat and started walking to her

"..Yeah…Yeah" she looked a bit confused "what happened?"

Diamond jumped into the conversation "you and dad beat the shit out of each other!" the boy went up to his mom, wide eyed.

"What? What are you talking about?" she gave him an uncertain look.

"You don't remember? You broke his arm and stuff with the bat and chair!"

By now Lindsey had come into the conversation "yeah mom, were proud of you for that"

Helga put her head down in her hands suddenly remembering. She thought for a moment and then came back up "…I really hurt him that bad?" she poked

"…When we came into the house he was laying on the floor reeling in and out of consciousness from pain I'm guessing" Ace said calmly, casually.

"I don't know what you did to him mom, but whatever it was, you hurt him." Her daughter sat down on the end of the bed, as she spoke.

The corners of their mom's mouth perked up as she looked at her children.

"I fought back guys, I fought back"

**(An hour later)**

"Hey, is my husband in hospital?" Helga asked the doctor in the room. He was in checking her stats and normal things.

"Not anymore, we cast his arm up; slung his shoulder and the police took him into custody" the doctor said and flicked her IV bag.

"Good" she settled back into her bed, happy

"I don't know what you did to him, but you took him for all he was worth girl" the doctor put his hands on his hips as he talked.

Helga chuckled slightly "that's what my kids keep telling me. I just fought back is all" she shrugged

"You're one hell of a fighter"

She looked at him and smiled "...Thanks"

"Your kids have a heck of a mom. It's a shame they had to have a dad like that to grow up with. It'll only make them stronger; I can tell they're good kids. But I guess that's the luxury you'll get with your new edition. It won't have to grow up in that environment" the doctor smiled reassuringly. Helga's face sunk at hearing his words. It sealed her most unwanted desires.

The doctor left and some time went by silently before Arnold peeked his head in the door. The sight of him was very much needed for Helga. It brightened up her mood, and day. Arnold had the gift, making peoples days better by just being there.

"Hey!" he smiled his signature ear to ear smile "I had to sneak through about 20 nurses to get here" he said as he walked into the room. "so uh, if I get hauled away its cause I'm not "immediate family" and aren't "suppose" to be here"

"Why? That's ridiculous." She replied

"You're telling me" he rolled his eyes. He walked over to the edge of the bed and hopped up on the side, scooting Helga over a bit. He put his arm around her shoulder, looked at her and smiled.

"…no, don't even ask" she said, faking anger horribly.

"I knew you wouldn't mind. Who doesn't want me in their bed? Anyway, how are you? Anything broken? Boy you sure put a beating on Dustin. I feel the need to slap you high five" he joked

"…that's what everybody keeps telling me!" she threw her hands up a bit and laughed. She then sighed "no, nothing broken just in shock"

"That's good" Arnold looked at her and said.

A few minutes of silence went by between them. They both stared at the television, watching a very old rerun of the show "Bonanza". Somehow, a hand from each of them wound up laced together without either of them really noticing.

"I uh... I'm gonna have another baby" Helga spoke up breaking the silence between the two. Arnold looked away from the TV to her with an odd look on his face.

"Seriously?" is all he said

"Yeah, the doctor kind of, nonchalantly told me, I guess he didn't realize I didn't know"

"Geez, I'm sorry Helga" he sat up and looked at her "…you gonna be okay? I mean this is a big thing and I know you don't want it—"

"No, I'll be fine. It's just another set back in life. I'll be okay" she smiled at him

"Well, I believe everything happens for a reason. Whether you believe it or not is you're on decision."

"Well no, it's not that. I was just looking forward to having the house to myself in the next few years." She smiled

Arnold laughed and rolled his eyes. "You selfish dork" they both shared a laugh before he lay back down. He put both his arms around her as she laid her head on his shoulder, and they both continued to watch the show, peacefully.

_**A/N:** oh snap, down time chapter. I thought it was kind of sweet and needed. I think in this chapter Helga is starting to get her confidence built back up which is a very good thing. She's starting to realize she really can do it. She's not letting things get her down. Anywho, until next time, I'm out!_


	12. Karma Chat

Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold

Chapter: 12

**Karma Chat**

Big Bob burst into the hospital room completely out of breath. He pulled off his grey shades and propped himself up against the door frame

"Holy hell, its vicious out there!" he sputtered

"Are they that bad?" Helga looked up from buttoning her jeans. She was on the side of her bed, getting dressed to leave.

"Oh yeah!" he confirmed

Arnold became curious of what the two were talking about. "…What's vicious?" he poked

Bob glanced to his daughter's face, noticing her two black eyes. "Oh sweetheart…" he walked to her "…What did he do to you?" he touched her face with his hands and winced

"I've been hit worse dad, don't worry about it" she shrugged it off

"Hello!" Arnold waved his hands in the air "what is out there?"

Both father and daughter looked towards him.

"What's his deal?" Bob asked

"Don't mind him, he's never been mobbed before" she responded, confusing her blonde counterpart even further. She put flip flops on and was ready to roll.

"Hey Arnold, let me borrow your sunglasses" she asked. He complied and handed her the brown aviators off his shirt. She flipped them on to her face and grabbed onto his arm. "Get ready to experience being one of the rich and…semi-famous"

The three opened up the front lobby doors and were greeted by hundreds of flashing bulbs. Arnold now realized what they were talking about, the paparazzi. Bob started shoving them out the way as his daughter kept her head down and clung to Arnold. They pushed through the shouting crowd to get to the awaiting excursion.

Arnold wasn't exactly sure how to react, seeing as he'd never in his life been mobbed before. He wasn't sure what to do, so he did what he thought he should, he shielded her. He put his arm over her, blocking some of the cameras as best he could. She kept her self ducted well the entire walk to the vehicle.

They did finally manage to get to the excursion after what felt like eternity. The two of them climbed in as Bob went to the driver's side. Diamond, Ace and Lindsey were already in it. They sat down, slammed the door and Bob took off. The blonde star flipped off her sunglasses and rolled her eyes.

She handed them back to her counter part who asked "Does that always happen?"

"No not always, mostly only when something big has happened, or were out on the scene" she replied sitting back in the seat.

"That is crazy!" he laughed

"Yeah" she laughed back "...But you get used to it"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH**

A few hours, a shower, and some phone calls later and you found Helga lying on the couch, in her new apartment. She'd been in it about three weeks, and loving it more than the hotel she was formally in. She yawned and flipped through the channels with the remote. After seeing that nothing productive to watch was on, she turned off the TV and pulled out some paper work to go through.

She sorted mostly through bills that had to be paid. The lights, water and such at the house had to be paid. It crossed her mind briefly to have them turned off, since nobody lived there currently. She finally decided against it, just in case they did go back to it. She tediously wrote out checks to be mailed off.

Arnold came in from the kitchen and sat down beside her. He sported an apron with spaghetti stains on it. "What you doing?" he leaned over to look

She smiled "Paying bills"

"The American way of having fun eh?" he chuckled

She looked up and laughed "Yeah, you know it"

She sighed "…I'll be so glad when all this stuff is over"

"Yeah, so, what do you plan to do after all of this?"

"Well, I either plan to move back into the house I have now, or buy me another one. Just settle back down and re-start my life with my kids. And bunker down and get ready for my new one" she smiled slightly and laughed

"See I knew you'd come around about the baby. You're getting excited, you know it!" he nudged her playfully.

Helga looked at him and couldn't help but smile. "Alright alright, you caught me. I'm getting slightly excited. I miss the trio being babies. I had a lot of fun with them during those young years." She confessed

"Ah, I love babies, kids, you name it. They're drawn to me." Arnold stated, smiling big

"You and Rhonda never wanted kids?" Helga became a little more serious

"Me, yes, her…not so much" Arnold sat back on the couch as he talked

"Yeah, she never seemed the type to want any" she agreed

"Well, what can you do I suppose? Obviously I was never meant to have any of my own, just work with them"

"Oh come on, you're still bound to meet somebody else and have a beautiful life" Helga talked as she continued to write out bills and such. Arnold sat there and watched her.

He smiled "…Yeah, maybe you're right"

"So…" he poked around "…when you gonna tell Dustin?"

"Um…I'm not" she never looked away from her work

"What? You can't just not tell him! What are you going to say in a few months? Whoops I forgot!" he raised his voice a bit

"I just don't think he deserves to know okay!" Helga shot back, slightly annoyed. Arnold caught on and dropped it.

"I'm sorry…" he apologized

"No its alright, I understand what you're trying to say, but if I have things my way, he wont be around to bother me or even know about my baby. Plus, like he gives a damn?" She gathered her papers together and stacked them all up. Then looked a Arnold and nodded.

"Spaghetti is ready!" Arnold clapped his hands together as he got up headed for the kitchen

"Aww, you shouldn't have" she said playfully to him

"Yeah well, you got to eat. Cant let you wither away into nothing" he looked back as he walked. "…I just want to help out as much as I can"

"Thanks" she smiled

Ace walked in through the second entrance to the kitchen. As soon as the food hit his nostrils he became excited. He quickly grabbed him a plate out of the cabinet and scooped him a big pile of spaghetti onto it. His uncle had even made the garlic bread to go along with it, which the boy helped himself to.

"Dude, Arnold, you rock!" he flopped down at the kitchen bar. "Mom, you should let him come over and cook more often!" Ace then dug his fork into the pile of noodles and sauce and began to shovel it in.

"What are you trying to say? My cooking isn't good?" she put her hands on her hips, jokingly.

"Nope, you just haven't cooked in decades!" he said in between a few bits of food.

"Yeah yeah, I know. I'm teasing" she walked over to the cabinet and got a plate herself. Diamond and Lindsey came in from the entrance Ace had used and made them a plate too. Arnold was last to make his and after he did so, they all moved into the dinning room to sit at the big table, and ate together like one big happy family.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Across town Dustin sat at a table with his good hand cuffed to a chain around his body. His left hand was cast and slung, which was also attached to his chest. He had himself away from the table enough to lay his head down on it. He was tired and in pain. All he wanted to do at the moment was sleep, and he was almost there.

Until officer Whittle sat down in front of him. He flapped down a manila folder with various papers in it in front of Dustin. "Get up!" he said sternly

Dustin lazily did as he was told. He sat there and gave Officer Whittle a 'who do you think you are' look. "What?" he responded annoyed

"Don't act like you don't know. I want to know why you did it. What happened Dustin?" the officer folded his hands in front of him on the desk and stared at his suspect.

"What is there to tell? She came after me! Look at my damn arm!" he spat back. This made Whittle laugh

"You expect me to believe that she just attacked you for no reason?" Whittle raised an eyebrow

"Well—"

"I don't think so…" Dustin was cut off "…no sir. That girl was running away from you scared. She was fighting you because you were trying to hurt her. What I want to know it why?"

Dustin sat there for a few seconds looking at the table and thinking, finally coming back with "…Cause she's a bitch, that's why"

Whittle leaned forward more looking his suspect square in the eye "Dustin, you honestly think you're going to beat this don't you? We've known about you two for a couple of years now, and how you've treated her. We just couldn't do a damn thing about it because she never would come forward. Well, I've got some news for you sir, Mrs. McGrath is through being victimized by you, and damn through playing these games of yours. She's going to drag you through court and I will promise you are going to get put away, for a long while. And prison isn't so lovely." With that last statement Whittle got up from his seat

"Take that chew, swallow and digest and then maybe your eyes will be opened up to the real world, and how things really work. Karma is a funny real thing Dustin, and you're about to find out what long over due karma is like for scum like you, and money isn't going to buy your way out of your mess." The officer slid his chair in and walked out of the room, very pleased with the speech he just gave.

Dustin just sat there staring at the table. The room was eerie quiet. The only sound that was heard was the sound of him swallowing hard.

_**A/N: Alrighty, there we have it, chapter 12. So does it seem like Arnold is beginning to move in and take Dustin's place? Pick up on his slackness? Do ya think he's starting to fall for Helga a little bit? Lol and do you think that for once Dustin is afraid of what is going to happen to him? Or do you think he is still cocky enough to believe he does no wrong? Wow, that is a bunch of questions. Lol sorry guys. Any who until the next chapter I'm out--**_


	13. Mother Daughter

-1Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold

Chapter: 13

**Mother Daughter**

(four days later)

Helga opened up the door to her apartment and quickly slammed it shut as she walked through. She dropped her purse and her back pack in the small foyer and sighed.

"Uh! I'm so sick of lawyers!" she ran her hands through her silky blonde hair before putting it up in a messy bun.

Lindsey sat on the couch watching an old re-run of Law and Order. She was half in it, and half out. When her mother came in she couldn't help but laugh at her a bit.

"Hello to you too!" she looked over her shoulder and the back of the couch as her mom walked through the living room.

"Sick sick sick SICK!" Helga continued to stomp through the area

Lindsey sighed and went back to her show "…yeah so what's new"

Her mom stormed off to her bedroom for awhile. However it wasn't long before she re-emerged with a completely different attitude. She walked up behind the couch and put her arms around her daughter. Lindsey laughed and turned, giving her a funny look.

"So what are you doing today?" Helga asked, smiling

"Um, well…nothing…as usual why?" Lindsey chuckled a little, wondering what her mom was getting at.

"Well, I know you go tomorrow to take your restricted test to drive. Soooo I was thinking that me and you go down to some of the dealerships and find you a car"

The girl's eyes got wide as the words left her mothers lips. She jumped up and looked at her, excited as could be. "Are you serious!"

"Yeah, you ready to go?" Helga ushered her with her hands

"I'm cool!" she found the remote and turned off the TV "I'm ready to go!"

"Well come on then!" Her mom said as she headed to the door. Lindsey trailed on her feet, even more excited than before. "So you got any ideas of what you want?"

"Oh, geez mom I have no idea. I kind of liked Diamonds Range Rover he had, or Ace's Mercedes. But I'm not sure I want an SUV or not."

"That's alright; we got the whole day to decide. I was thinking if you wanted a car maybe a BMW, Aston Martin, or maybe a Lotus Elise. Something like that" by now they were down by the street.

"Oh snap mom, you got Comet out" Lindsey walked up to it and opened its vertical door.

"It needs to be driven, so why not" Helga walked around and got in the drivers side

"Were gonna have to beat the guys off with sticks today mom" she winked before laughing.

The two sped off down the street, their first destination being the city capitol BMW lot. That day it was going to be just the two of them and nobody else. It was their day. Helga was most thankful she finally got to have one of these long over due times.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Arnold pushed opened the front door to his office and skipped out on the street. It was lunch and he planned on walking down to one of the little dinners for a meal. He flipped on his sunglasses, put his hands in his pockets and strutted down the sidewalk. Why you ask? Because he could. And deep down inside he was a big kid. Whenever he flipped on his shades it always reminded him of John Travolta at the end of _Dance Fever._

He kept walking a few blocks before he began passing a few newsstands decorated with the latest news, magazines and tabloids. Arnold had never stopped at one of them before but he caught a certain image out of the corner of his glasses. Its like walking and seeing yourself out the corner of your eye and looking really fast. You just do it instinctively. He stopped to investigate, pushing his glasses up on his head.

Nicely plastered on the front of a leading tabloid was him looking very irate at the press and Helga ducked between his arm. He picked it up quickly, eyeballing the bold captioned text: "Helga hospitalized, Husband in jail, but the biggest question: who's this guy?"

He looked away from the one he was holding to the other ones on the shelves. Several more had them from various camera angels on the front cover. All of them had caption asking a question or explaining stuff like: "New guy in Helga's life?" "Showdown at the McGrath mansion" and "Was she cheating?"

Arnold found himself whipping out his phone and calling Helga. Admittedly he was quiet upset about the things these magazines were trying to suggest. It bothered him a lot.

"Hello?" Helga's voice pierced through the phone, it was obvious she was in a very excited mood, possibly just been laughing. In which she had been.

"Hey!" Arnold responded, sounding a bit down and concerned. "um…have you seen the magazines at the newsstands?"

She was watching her daughter fiddled with all the gadgets in a new BMW sedan, highly uninterested in the conversation "umm…no I haven't. why?"

"they've got us on the front stating highly false accusations!" He freaked out

"Arnold! Calm down! that's just all part of the paparazzi and being famous and being rich! You have to take the good with the bad. They will take anything that happens and turn it around. You just have to shrug it off and go on with your life." by now she was sitting in the new car with Lindsey. She'd stopped fiddling with the cars gadgets to listen to the conversation taking place.

He sighed "it said we were cheating"

"were we?" she felt like she was talking to a child. She cut him some slack though, this was all new him. He didn't know what to think or how to respond to it. He hadn't grown up with that kind of attention

"well, no"

"okay then, as long as you know you're in the right then that's all that matters. Plus, like anybody actually believes anything those tabloids have to say anyway"

"yeah you're right, sorry. Its just all new to me" he chuckled a little bit at his own humility

She laughed "hey no problem. I'm gonna let you go now cause me and Lindsey our out doing our thing right now. But if you want to come over later feel free. Were having tacos"

"tacos? Count me there! But yeah ill see you later. Bye"

The two hung up and continued about their activities. Helga looked to her offspring staring at the steering wheel of the car they sat in. she reminded her of when she was getting her first car. She could still remember it. Bob took her down to the Lincoln dealership and she picked out a Navigator.

"So, what you think?" she clicked her phone shut

"I like it! I think I might want it"

"Are you sure?" her mother eyeballed her

"Yeah, well if I get tired of it in the future yall can always get me something else" Lindsey smiled big and leaned back

Helga laughed and started opening up the passenger door. "that's not the right attitude to have. You're privileged to have these luxuries, don't take advantage of them." she said more serious

Lindsey rolled her eyes sarcastically and got out as well "I was just kidding"

"yeah I know, now come on and lets go heckle with some sales reps" the blonde said almost too excited like

"Why do you bother, you can afford the asking price" the brunette responded jostling her hands up slightly

"I know, but its just fun to play with them!" was her answer back.

(_2 hours later_)

The mother daughter pair traveled back down the road in the car in which they came. The plan was to pick up Lindsey's new car tomorrow after she got her license. The ride had been mostly quiet, a big change from the previous ride to the dealership.

The girl turned to her mother and asked "…is dad gonna go to jail?"

The silence was broke with a most touchy topic.

"I don't know…" Helga responded, never peeling her eyes away from the road "I hope he does…"

"me too.." the girl replied, never looking away from the window.

A few more minutes of uncomfortable silence went by before he daughter looked from the window to her.

"was it all worth it mom? I mean…putting up with him all those years?"

Helga chewed the bottom of her lip, thinking on this difficult question. She knew the answer, she just didn't know how to get it out.

"it was all for you guys. It didn't matter how unhappy I was, as long as yall were happy, it didn't matter"

The girls brown eyes looking aimlessly at the consol, not wanting to look at her mom.

"what if…what if I said we weren't happy?" she sighed in real big "…We all three decided a long time ago that we would have been happier having just our mom and Dustin out of the picture." she paused for a moment, looking at her lap "…It was never fun waking up in the middle of the night hearing yall fight, creeping out of our bedrooms and looking over the railing just to see our mom get beat down…"

"…Yeah…real fun.." she added in again, emphasizing her point

"I'm so sorry…." Helga whispered "..I just did--"

Lindsey looked at her mom, very sincere "Don't be sorry mom, you just did what you thought was best and hey, It worked for awhile, you were good at hiding it when we were kids…but we grew up mom. We grew up and started noticing we were different than other family's, and something wasn't right. Dustin was an asshole and you shouldn't have had to deal with him. I respect you for your patients"

"well I tried, that's all I can say. But things are gonna get better, they've already gotten better. I can actually breath for the first time. And I like it"

"and I'm proud of you. We all are. We were glad to go and we like it here, a lot. And I can imagine it is hard on you a bit. Even with all the bad things he had done, I can imagine its still hard to part with somebody you've been with for 18yrs of your life." the young girl just kept talking, just to talk.

"it is, slightly. I will always love your father, no matter what. He's what I built my life around and without him I would of never had you three. But the chapter of me and him is over, its closed, its never going to be again." Helga stated. She liked this talk. It felt good to be able to talk to her kid like an adult.

"so how come Arnold was never allowed to come around? The only thing we really knew about him is stuff dad would tell us, and it was all negative. He's so cool though, we all three like him a lot! Why does dad hate him so much? that's his own brother!" Lindsey poked

"Because your dad has held a grudge against him for 18yrs now. He over heard Arnold trying to talk me out of marrying your dad. He beat him up after the wedding and never has forgiven him for just looking out for me" Helga became agitated just thinking about that day.

Lindsey gave her mom a 'are you serious' look "Wow… that is ridiculously immature"

Helga laughed "yeah! You're telling me"

"Well he's a really nice guy. Like I said we all like him a lot, and wouldn't mind at all if he stuck around. Any who, do you want to go to the mall or something? Shopping maybe" she smiled really big

"ha, haven't I spent enough money on you today?"

"of course not! Impossible!" her daughter laughed

"fine then" Helga grinned at her, and the two headed towards the local shopping areas, continuing their day.

_A/N: Aww, I liked this chapter actually. It proves Helga is a good mom, however I don't want to portray the image that she buys her kids off with money. Not true! But I liked the idea of them spending a day just to themselves and talking and all that nifty stuff. I hope yall do too! Well until next time! I'm out! Later--_


	14. Holiday in the Sun

-1Disclaimer: I don't own Hey Arnold, nope

Chapter 14

**Holiday in the Sun**

(week later)

Lindsey, Ace and Diamond sat at the large oak table in their dinning room, munching down on steaks. Their mom was in the other room, once again sorting through lawyer issues. And for the first time since they had been in this apartment, Arnold wasn't there eating with them. They missed his presents at the table with them. He'd had to work late that night.

They thought Helga had been working on legal issues, when in actuality she'd been planning something big. She sat at the couch Indian style looking at various pamphlets. She folded the paper back up, smiling. She stood up and stuck it In her back pocket and walked into the dinning room.

"Okay guys, I've been thinking" they all stopped and looked at her

"Yall remember when we vacationed in the Caribbean?" she put her arms behind her back

"Yeah" they responded, however not in unison

"Well, how would yall like to go back for a week?"

Ace's eyes brightened up "Dude, mom, are you serious!" he stood up

"Yeah I am, like this week" she pulled her arms our from her behind her back and crossed them.

"This week?" Diamond eyeballed his mom, poking his fork at his steak

"Why not? We've all been stressed out, why cant we just get away for a week?"

Diamond laughed, putting his fork down on his plate "hey, I wasn't objecting at all! I'm ready to go"

"Hey can we stay at Richard Clooney's house again? Like last time?" Lindsey butted in. she picked up her cup and sloshed the liquid around in a circular motion

"If he isn't there. I'll have to give him a call" Helga shifted her weight to one foot.

"cool deal cool deal" she finally drank the remaining drink in her cup

Helga clapped her hands together and smiled "alright then, if that's a yes then I'm gonna go start booking things"

She walked away looking back at them for any last objections. There were none so she went back to her spot on the couch. She sat down, once again Indian style and started searching through her cell's phone book for Mr. Clooney.

"hey mom…" she looked up to see all three of them walking around the couch. She put her phone down.

"what?"

Diamond scratched his arm, very unsure like. He looked at the floor. He finally sighed and picked his head up "You think Arnold can come?"

"Well you know I don't mind if he does, but I don't know whether he'll be able to, or want to"

"Well at least ask him, cause we kind of want him to come" he smiled

Helga smiled back at him "yall really like him don't yall?" she crossed her arms, cell phone still in hand.

Ace sat down on the coffee table and put his hands on his knees "He's like the coolest thing ever mom."

She chuckled "okay I get it, I get it… ill ask him"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Later that night Helga laid in her bed still making plans. She'd just gotten off the phone with an agent to plan the whole shindig. It was rather late and she toggled between calling Arnold and not. She sat there, opening and closing her phone. She finally decided too.

The phone rang twice before he picked up, sounding more perky than somebody should at this late hour.

"hey hey!" he greeted her call

"hello to you too!"

"so what's going on?" he responded, she could hear a TV in the back

"okay well this is gonna sound crazy but… how would you like to go to the Caribbean's?" she flipped on her TV just to make some noise

"ha-ha, Okay what's the catch?"

"no catch, me and the kids are gonna be traveling down their this week for awhile, thought we'd invite you along" she flipped through the channels

He sighed "I'm touched by the offer but some of us aren't made of money like you"

"Don't worry about it, its on me, you're my guest" she reasoned with him, she really didn't mind.

"Are you sure?" he became more serious

"I'm positive Arnold"

A brief silence went by "I don't want to feel like I'm intruding…"

"You're never intruding. I enjoy having you around and so do the kids" she smiled as she talked.

"…you're sure" he inquired once more

"Arnold!" she barked

"okay!" he laughed "sorry its just not everyday somebody asks me to head to an exotic spot with them"

"well get used to it. And were leaving the day after tomorrow" she laughed as she threw in

"what!" he yelled "this week!"

"I know I know, it was fast planning but yeah, this week" she put her hand on her forehead

"That's cool, ill just have to cancel all my weeks appointments. But other than that I should be good."

"Alrighty well, ill give you a call tomorrow to further up some details" Helga yawned and stretched her free arm out

"that'll be good. You have a great night. And once again thanks"

"oh you're welcome, its not a big deal I promise"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Dustin sat himself in his dimly lit cell. He laid propped up against the wall on his bed with is foot dangling off the edge. He swung it back and forth, twiddling his this thumbs to pass the hours. He wasn't sleepy. In fact, he was almost at an insomnia like state. Alls he did was think and plot, think and plot. He wondered what Helga had been up to.

He wondered if she'd been with his brother a lot. What were they doing? What was she planning? What was her next move, he wondered. He wondered what his boys had been doing, what Lindsey had been doing and what were they thinking now. For the first time in his life he was really starting to feel true abandonment.

He'd seen the tabloids that were posted. He read the captions and the story's the press wanted people to believe. He knew they were just tabloids but part of him couldn't help but wonder if some of it were true. He knew it was absurd that Helga could have been running around on him with Arnold. And he knew he let his imagination get the best of him. However it still bugged him.

He just wanted all this mess to be over. It was like a bad dream. Dustin wanted nothing more than to just be able to go home, and resume his life. As he sat there continually wrapped up in his thoughts, his new cell mate stirred. The guy had only just been put there that day and Dustin found him a large inconvenience. He didn't associate with people like this guy. It was way beneath him.

This guy was about 200lbs shaved head, and wore leather. He had the stereotypical biker look. He had tattoos sleeved on both his arms of dragons, naked girls and skulls. It disgusted Dustin to the most. He'd tried to avoid him as much as possible that day, and it had worked for the most part.

"Why do you sit over there all by yourself" the biker suddenly said through the dim light, is rough voice could quake water. Dustin didn't answer him, he just kept twiddling his thumbs, staring at the floor with his stone glare.

"What? Are you deaf too? You stupid?" he man laughed and got up

"I'm fine…" Dustin finally replied back, annoyed severely

"What are you in here for?" The big dude asked, more of demanded "well…?"

Dustin finally got aggravated enough to get up. He pushed him self off his cot with his good arm and stood up "Look, I don't feel like talking okay? Especially not with the likes of you. So just get back to your little corner over there tiny and leave me the hell alone!"

As quickly as Dustin finished his sentence he was met in the face by a fist. A big fist at that. He stumbled backwards, dazed and confused before falling back on his cot. He coughed before attempting to wipe the blood escaping from his nose. The big biker laughed before walking back over to his cot and sitting down.

_A/N: ahh, Dustin is starting to realize prison life. And Helga is going on vacation. I think she needs it personally. Just another down chapter or two before things start to pick up again, Rhonda Is getting ready to come back into the picture. Nope, she isn't gone yet lol well anyway, until next time. I'm out-- _


	15. Rescue Me

-1Disclaimer: I don't on HA

**Chapter: 14**

**Rescue me**

A balding short man sat at a large table, tapping his fingers impatiently on this black leather brief case. Across from him sat a very disgruntled Dustin and his lawyer. The convict sported his brand new shiner, un proudly. The room was uncomfortably quiet to say the least. Dustan's lawyer finally sighed, very annoyed at his time being wasted

"Gibson, where is your client?" He stood up

"I don't know, she was suppose to be here" Gibson rubbed the back of his neck

"well find out where she is, I don't have all day!"

"chill out Robert, ill call her" the bald man raised his voice. He reached into his coat pocket for his cell and dialed his clients number.

"Helga…hey! Yeah… this is Gibson. Well I'm calling cause we had a meeting down at the court-- oh, you are. Well then… alright, bye bye now" Gibson clicked his phone shut and sighed "it seem Mrs. McGrath is in the Caribbean's…"

"what!" Dustin and Robert said in unison

"that's what she said. She said she had to get away for a bit" Gibson shrugged and began to get out of his seat

"what a completely irresponsible thing to do! Especially in a time like this!" Robert threw his hands in the air before walking around the table towards his counter part.

"so I have to sit my ass in jail until she gets back?" Dustin butted in, causing his lawyer to stop walking. Gibson looked at him and shrugged again

"seems so" he turned and started to walk to the door

Dustin slammed his hands down on the table and kicked back in his chair. "such an bitch!"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

"who was that?" Arnold lifted his shades up as he asked his question. His hair blew sideways in the ocean winds. He had a white tee-shirt on and swim trunks.

"The lawyer…" Helga casually said, cozying back down in her chair.

"umm.. isn't that.. oh I don't know… sort of important?" He raised his eye brows looking at her.

She sat up in her chair and took off her sunglasses "chill hair boy ill take care of it when I get back"

Arnold laughed "geez, touchy aren't we? I was kidding…" he put his sunglasses back on.

"well I think…" she stood up from her chair. "I'm gonna walk to the bar down the beach and get a daiquiri" she put her hands on her hips

"now wait a minute Helga, you can be drinking-"

"virgin daiquiri…" she smiled. He hopped up himself and brushed some stray sand off of his shorts.

"how far down is it?" he asked as they started walking.

"not too far" she replied

"do they have food, I'm starving!" he rubbed his stomach and laughed.

"you and food, geez, yeah, its an entire sea grill" Helga said as she adjusted her sunglasses on her face. "… so how are you liking it here so far?"

Arnold put his hands in the pockets of his shorts " oh its amazing. I cant believe were actually staying at Richard Clooney's home."

"yeah, I figured you'd like that"

"how did you meet him?" he poked

"I've been known to rub elbows with a few celebrities in my time" she grinned at him

Arnold chuckled "you are your own little celebrity. Therefore I am rubbing elbows with a celebrity. Sweet!" he held both his arms in the air with his index finger pointed up. Helga laughed, shoving him with her shoulder.

"you have no idea how much I wished I was you" she kicked a small sand dune as they walked.

"what are you talking about? You have everything…" he put his arms down.

Helga looked at him "that doesn't always mean you're happy. Look at you, your life is simple, no huge problems to look forward to, you don't have to constantly impress somebody, you have peace"

He chuckled slightly "well thanks. You know Helga…" he put his arm around her shoulder "you've come a long way from what you used to be" she pulled away from him and gave him a funny look

"and what's that suppose to mean?"

A short burst of laugher escaped his throat "oh come on, you used to threaten to beat the crap out of me daily! I really only gave you a chance cause you liked my brother"

She let out a quick breath "…ouch…thanks…"

Arnold gave her shoulder a squeeze " ah, I don't regret it, not at all. If I hadn't, we might not be here right now"

Before anything else was said, they had arrived at the final destination point. It was a small little tiki like hut, on top of a raised wooden platform. It faced the ocean and on the platform were tables with umbrellas atop them for shade. You could buy exotic drinks, sodas, beer, grilled or even native foods. It was named _Jacks Rum Shack_ .

Helga stepped up on the platform first, and Arnold right after her. She swiftly walked the short distance to the bamboo counter, a few banana leaves from the roof hung over the edge. There was a small menu placed on the back of the hut, but it displayed only basic items. Helga propped her elbows up on the counter and put her head on her fists as her eyes scanned the small menu.

"Helga McGrath" A dark skinned man came up to the counter. His black hair was gelled back and covered with a white Sinatra style hat. He had a mustache that formed down into a goatee and a Hawaiian print shirt.

Helga looked up surprised that her full name had been mentioned. As soon as she saw the stranger he became familiar, and she smiled

"George?" her eyes widened

The man outstretched his arms "I'm a few years older and a couple pounds bigger, but its me"

"oh my gosh!" Helga leaned over the counter and greeted George's bear hug. They finally pulled apart. Arnold stood to the side, completely out of what was going on, but he'd become used to it and just waited.

"how are you?" George propped himself up on the counter with his arms

"I'm uh, doing good. I'm down here for a week with the kids and my friend" she nodded

"the kids!" he drew back "how old are they now?"

"the boys are 16 and Lindsey is 15...they aren't babies anymore" she chuckled

"wow… it has definitely been some time since you've been here. But listen, I've read the magazines and stuff, and I know they lie, but what's up with Mr. McGrath…"

Helga grimaced at his name "we have uh… actually split due to his anger issues…"

"no! so its true then?" George acted surprised as he scratched his neck near his shirt collar.

"yeah it is…" Helga mumbled back

"well ms. Helga, what can I get you?" he clapped his hands together. Helga was thankful for the subject change

"I'm thinking possibly a virgin daiquiri" she smirked

"and your friend?" he pointed to Arnold, catching him off guard

"um…" he walked forward to the counter and glanced at the menu "umm… a pirate lovers basket.. And… a bud light"

"I'm right on it" he smiled at them both and walked away.

"I'm gonna go get a table alright?" Helga told Arnold before walking away. she picked a table to the left of the shack and took a seat facing the ocean. Arnold turned his back to the counter and leaned up against it, elbows propped on the counter. He squinted as he looked out to the ocean, and to her. It seemed like he stood there forever, letting the ocean winds whip over him. It was nice.

His trance was finally broken by the sound of glass setting down on would. He looked to his left to see George had sat down a basket and drinks. He slowly pushed off his elbows to face the shack and get his food.

"you like her don't you…"

Arnold coughed, the question caught him severely off guard. He looked at the native and raised his eye brows

"do what?"

George put his hands on his hips and chuckled "come on, I see the way you look at her. Its obvious."

The dense blonde looked over his shoulder at her still facing the ocean and then back at the shack attendant "is it..?"

"very my boy…look… I read the papers and magazines. I know what's going on and I've met Mr. McGrath myself. After him, she needs somebody like you…"

Arnold looked down and then at George, squinting his eyes. He ran his fingers over the rim of his bottle neck beer. "how do you know? You don't know me…"

The man grinned "I don't have to know you, I can just tell. So go my boy, go rescue her…"

Arnold dropped his head and laughed a bit, he then picked it back up and nodded grabbing his basket of food and drinks. "you know George, I think she just might be rescuing me…"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Thousands of miles away a raven haired girl sat at a desk writing away. She worked tediously on a script destend for Broadway. She scribbled away for some time before sitting back up straight. She put her chin on her palm, propping her elbow up on the desk and read her work. She sighed and pivoted her pen forward, setting it down on the paper.

Her cell phone sat near by, mocking her for use. She'd fought it all night, in fact this is why she occupied her time writing. He rolled her eyes and grabbed it, flipping it open and dialing a familiar number. She instantly hung it up and slammed the phone down.

"…no" she whispered to herself "..don't do it…"

However she didn't listen to her own advice and picked up the device, once again, dialing that ever so familiar number. This time she stayed on long enough to hear it ring. It rang again. And again.

It seemed that nobody would pick up, and her heart soared slightly, not having to face her estranged acquaintance. Her heart quickly sank again when she heard a click and a grumbled male voice crackle on the other end

"hello…"

"Arnold…?" she inquired, unsure

"no, this is his room mate" the man replied

"well, is he around by any chance?" she had began drawing circles on the paper with her pen, fidgety like.

"he's in the Caribbean's right now.."

She dropped her pen "the Caribbean's! what's he doing there?.."

"I have no idea, I don't pry. But I can take a message for him" he sighed

"yeah sure…tell him that Rhonda called, if you would" he lowered her voice a little

"alrighty I will. Later" shortly after she heard a click on the other end

"bye.." she said to it and clicked her phone shut. She leaned back in her chair and thought for awhile "what are you doing there…?"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Back in Hillwood, an insomniac plagued Dustin sat in his cell by himself. He enjoyed the lack of company to say the least. He had pulled up a seat and was sitting with his hands hanging out the bars. It was getting dark and he was getting severely bored. He needed to get out of here and quickly, but not to quick, he had to strategize. There was a guard he'd had his eye on for awhile. He thought it looked… weak, and easily manipulated. He was a young guy.

Dustin guessed maybe in his mid twenties. Probably with a wife and maybe a kid two. And just like everybody else in the world, he probably needed money. Dustin waited till the guard made is way back to his side and called to him. He was ignored first but on a second calling to inquire a question, the guard came over.

"what do you want?" he asked, trying to in force his authority

"how would you like to make some money?" Dustin smirked to him

"yeah.. Nice try buddy…" the guard replied, turning to walk away..

"do you know who I am?" Dustin casually asked. The guard stopped and turned back around

"I'm Dustin McGrath, I have a few…bucks so to say in my name. I just need some help" he tapped his fingers on the bars

"..how much" the guard whispered

"…10grand"

The guard looked around cautiously and then nervously leaned In closer to Dustin

"I'm listening…"

_A/N: wow…very very long chapter. Guess a lot got accomplished. Maybe I don't know. Dustin's planning something, Rhonda's planning something, Arnold is…well… being Arnold I guess. Anyway, until next time I'm out--_


	16. In the Pursuit of Happiness

-1Disclaimer: I don't own HA

**Chapter: 16**

**In the pursuit of happiness**

The sun poked through the blinds gently, illuminating the house and all its furnishings. It was a cool New York day, with birds singing and not a cloud in the sky. The familiar raven haired woman sat once again at her desk, as she had been a few nights ago, writing. She wrote mostly to clear her mind. This time instead of a script she just wrote down feelings she had at the up most core of her heart. Nobody was to see these but she and only she.

She stopped her penning and looked up as the house creaked. She sat in the study with the door cracked. The creaking sound like it was from the kitchen. She figured that he was probably up. The thought for a moment before sitting back and laying her pen down. She clicked the ball point shut and closed her notebook. She'd return to it later, and so she stuck it in a secret drawer under the desk.

She stood from the desk and scooted her chair in. A neat freak she was so things had to be tidy and fashion. She exited the room and closed the old door with a metallic click, and went on her way. Rhonda walked through the dinning area to the kitchen to see her boyfriend sitting at the bar pouring himself a bowl of cereal. He was a tall man, athletic with black hair, like her self. It was always flat, his hair, he wore it plain lacking any style, and it didn't help that his hair was naturally body less. He also had a small tuff of hair under his lip on his chin, what they would call a soul patch.

Rhonda thought of it as rather pointless to shave his entire face, except that one tuff of hair. He had it when she met and him and ever since so she thought it futile to argue about it. He poured his milk and picked up the paper to read.

"Good morning darling…" his voice cracked over the paper

"hey babe…" she gave him a kiss, before walking to the cabinets, in search some type of food. "..so what are your plans for the day?" she asked, still rooting through boxes of cereal

He never looked away from his paper "you know me, theater is my life" he chuckled a bit. Rhonda finally decided on a banana and walked around the counter and set across from him.

"but…" he sat the paper down "tonight, I'm taking you to that new restaurant down on main street."

"aw you know the way to my heart" she laughed, peeling her banana.

"I would hope so"

A few minutes of silence went by before Rhonda spoke up once more

"so I'm… thinking about making a trip to…Hillwood" the last word came out slowly "…next week.." her eyes watched the counter. Her boyfriend laid his paper down and took a bite of his cereal

"oh whys that?"

She looked up "I just… kinda miss seeing the place"

"sure you do, its really about Arnold isn't it?" he sat his spoon down

" I just have some things to clear up with him, that's all…" she laid the banana down still looking at him "…he cant get over it"

"and I don't think you are either"

Rhonda sighed and leaned back In her chair "Jason, if I wasn't would I be here? No. I just wanna go state to him that I have moved on and he should too" she lied a bit

Jason sighed and looked around "okay…go then"

"there's nothing to worry about"

"I know, but can you blame me?" he picked up his spoon again

Rhonda got up from her seat and walked around the counter towards him, she put her arms around him and gave him a big hug "it'll be alright"

Her mind was else where though, to Arnold mostly. Her biggest question she had was why he was in the Caribbean's, it just naturally struck her as odd…

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Out of the US and to the shores of the Caribbean's a lone house stood atop a vast empty estate of lane bordered by ocean. It was privacy for miles and larger than ever. The weather there failed to compare to New York's spotless sunshine. It was a rainy one, with moderate rain all day, and no lightning or thunder. One would call it a movie day.

Two blondes sat in a swing on a screened in porch, simply listening to the rain beat down on the ocean. A comforting sound it was, and they chatted lightly about random subjects as they listened.

"wow, that was actually your grandpas last words?" Helga laughed, taking a sip of her water

"no lie! 'see ya suckers' last words" Arnolds eyes widened as he laughed.

"well you know, it sounds like something he'd say" she nodded

"yeah well, that was my grandpa for ya" Arnold chucked and shrugged.

Helga sat her water down on the table "I figure my dad will die saying something to advertise his beepers. And my mom…will die a drunk hands down"

"you think he'll wear like a beeper shirt or something" he grinned. Helga giggled and punched him lightly "hey, watch it!" he bowed back in defense, laughing. He straightened back up and proceeded on with his talking "so I haven't seen your mom in awhile now, where's she been hiding away?"

Helga coughed and looked at him oddly. The blonde guy looked around wondering what he'd said wrong.

"she left my dad when I was 18, where have you been?" Helga said.

Arnold looked taken back "left him? That long? Geez, I'm sorry, nobody tells me anything" he put his head down and scratched his temple

"no its alright, its was a pretty quiet thing. But yeah, its was a long time ago" she nodded and smiled

"you ever talk to her?" he poked

"she used to call a bit, but I haven't heard from her in years" she shrugged, not really caring.

"so, 2nd to the last day here and it rains, hopefully weather will fair better tomorrow" she perked up, clapping her hands together

"yeah really…" he looked out, stretching his arms over the top of the swing "although its really relaxing…hearing the rain and all"

"I agree" she laid back in the swing, her head rested on his arm, un intentionally. The warmth of her touching him sent a shiver through Arnold. He just wanted to watch her, she was amazing. He found him self doing so as she talked on about various things. He didn't even notice that she'd stopped and had looked at him. She laughed "what?"

He snapped out of it and smiled "…nothing"

"you sure" she inquired, still laughing a bit

"I am most positive" he moved closer to her face and smiled. He pulled back and put his arm down around her and scooted her closer. She didn't resist at all and soon he had her close enough to him he could put his other arm around her and lace his hands together. Spooning rather you call it. She sighed and smiled, laying her head up against him and they both watch the rain fall quietly.

They were being watched themselves however, by three teens associated with them. At the porches glass door stood Ace, Diamond and Lindsey staring at them, out of view. All three sported very broad smiles as they watched. Lindsey motioned to her two brothers to come on as she began to head back to the living room. Diamond backed away and started following his sister.

Ace was left last and he smiled "way to go mom…" the turned away and jogged off towards his siblings.

_A/N: short chapter, indeed. More Arnold, Helga cuteness. Yay! No Dustin this time though. Vacation is almost over folks that means return to Hillwood drama. Yay! Lol anyway, R&R as always. Thanks to the ones that do review. I love you guys! Until next time, I'm out-- _


	17. Deception

-1Disclaimer: yep, don't own it

**Chapter: 17**

**Deception**

Arnold sat in a extremely comfortable seat, looking out a small portal window. He watched the clouds wisp by fast, yet when he looked to the ground it crept by pathetically. Its weird he though, how things work that way. The plane was so quiet, it crept him out a bit. It was a personal, and they were the only ones occupying it. And on board movie had everybody's attention except for his own. 'DJ Hooker' was the movie, and old TV show made into a movie. He didn't care to see it so he spent the time watching the skies and thinking.

Mostly he thought about the future, and what was going to happen. He thought about his family, about Helga, about Rhonda, about everything. He had still failed to tell his aging mother that her eldest son would more than likely be going to jail. It upset him that he hid this, but he knew it would break her heart. Actually he didn't know if she knew or not, Dustin could of called, but Arnold hadn't heard anything from her, so he hoped for the best.

He shook his head and sighed. He hated being associated with an individual capable of such un-imaginable acts. Helga may have tormented his child hood, but she definitely didn't deserve what his brother dished out to her. He propped his head up on his right hand and leaned on the arm rest, still watching the white mist zip by. He felt almost like he had to make it up to her some how. that's not why he hung around, not at all. He was attracted to her, not just physically, but emotionally.

She was plagued with so many of her own demons and it attracted him so. She was un-perfect and didn't care that she was. He found it surprising refreshing. She was completely different from the bully he knew as a child, but that was the beautiful thing about growing up, you mature. He found it a bit unusual that he was frolicking around with is brothers wife. After all, they were technically still married.

It didn't really bother him, because he knew what was going on, and how things happened, but people talked, and he knew that. Deep down, he did care what people said about him, and he liked to uphold a credible reputation in his community.

"don't think to hard over there"

The feminine voice broke him from his spell bound stare. He turned his head to it

"hmmm?" he raised his eye brows

"…were getting ready to land soon" Helga smiled, replacing her movie headphones to there selected spot.

"…already?" he moved away from the window

"yeah, quick plane" she laid back in the seat.

The chuckled "yeah, id say so"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

2hours later)

A black SUV parked in front of the curb at the Sunset Boarding House. Arnold sighed in the passenger seat

"well, looks like my stop" he began opening the door. Helga opened her door and got out. Diamond got out to help with bags and such. The boy popped the back door of the Escalade and grabbed a huge suit case. Arnold came behind him and grabbed the remaining suit case.

He popped it out the back and set it on the pavement and looked at Helga "so, what are your plans tonight?"

"uh, I gotta go home and get ready to go meet with the lawyers and Satan…" she crossed her arms

Arnold laughed a bit "..Satan…nice.."

"oh yeah, well…ya know" she shifted her weight to one side

At a completely random urge of his he asked "…can I come with?"

Helga shot him a very confused look "you want to come sit and listen to legal junk?"

He shoved his hands in his pockets "well, it might piss Satan off a bit…" he didn't even know why he said it, it was completely out of character for him to want to do such a thing, but his mouth kept running.

"Arnold, you amaze me sometimes." she looked up and then back at him and smiled "but sure if you want to tag along, you're welcome to. Be at my house in about 2 hours"

"alright, I will" he nodded, picking up his suit case. He still couldn't believe that he said he wanted to go, for the soul fact of getting a reaction out of is brother. What had gotten into him. He'd find out later though, he had unpacking to do.

(**2 hours later)**

He was once again in the passenger seat of her SUV, cruising down the streets of Hillwood to the courthouse. or at least that's where he thought they were going. He would admit he was a bit nervous, but excited too. He didn't know why either. He dressed simply, as if he was going to work. Polo shirt and kakis. Helga was dressed in a polo herself, and some jeans, loose fitting. Arnold had notice she was starting to show just a tad.

"you still sure you want to go? Were almost there, but I can still turn around" she asked

"nope I'm good" he said coolly. Helga was still dumbfounded of why he even cared to go. She pulled he truck into a parking space and killed the engine. They both silently got out and walked into the formal building known as, the court house.

When they came into the lobby area she asked for directions to her meeting by a secretary and off they went. It was chilly in the building, very chilly. They silently walked down the hall way and approached a certain room. Helga sucked in a deep breath and opened the door to face her awaiting opponents.

"Hello Mrs. McGrath!" Gibson, her lawyer greeted her, standing up. Dustin sat with his head propped up slanted like on his cast arm, his eyes lazily looked to her direction. Arnold cautiously peeked his head in the door and investigated, he then quietly walked in

"who's this?" Gibson pointed in the blondes direction

"oh he's a friend of mine" Helga said already seating herself. Dustin looked over and sat up startled like giving his sibling an ever confused look. Arnold simply seated himself next to Helga and kept quiet, the whole time being eyeballed by his brother

"nice of you to show up this time Mrs. McGrath" Robert said, sassy like

"nice of you to represent my estranged husband" she smiled smart ass like. Roberts smile quickly dropped into a scowl.

"lets proceed shall we?" Gibson butted in. he then began reading from a paper "okay, Mrs. McGrath here has filed a domestic disturbance claim against your defendant stating that he caused her injury in which she had to be hospitalized. The records state that that is indeed true."

"bullshit…" Dustin muttered

"Also filed against the defendant a grant for divorce seeking custody of the three minors involved and all personal items owned"

"what?" Dustin raised his voice "you cant do that" he eyeballed her, very irate

"Dustin, shut it…" Robert looked at him

"everything you have is because I've given it to you…" Helga butted in, staring him down like he did her "and I'm leaving with it…"

"the hell you are…" he responded

"I said shut it…"

The angry convict sat there and fumed in his rage, refusing to thinking even the slightest bit rationally. Robert finally leaned across the table and looked at Gibson

"deal me the cards. What is he looking at?" he asked

"Mr. Tynes, whether your client will except it or not, he did bodily damage to both his wife and his children and could of caused death, with evidence to back it up. Any reasonable jury will find him guilty on the spot. Its not a matter of IF, it's a matter of WILL and how severe his punishment will be. However, we can avoid the whole process if he will plead guilty…" he looked at him, most seriously

"…never" her husband muttered

"…what are you offering?" Robert said, silently

"no!" Dustin raised his voice

"…2-4 years minimum security, eligible for parole after 18months…"

Robert with drew himself into whispering to his ever fuming client. To Helga the punishment wasn't near enough for what she suffered, but she was smart enough to know that was about as good as it was going to get, and she was willing to except it. Arnold had remained quiet the entire ordeal. He constantly felt the hot unwelcome stare of his brother on him, he didn't make I contact though.

After what seemed like forever, Robert straightened himself up "…he'll take the deal"

Helga breathed a slight sigh of relief hearing those words leave his mouth. Gibson emerged a paper to be sighed by Dustin and he did so. The meeting hadn't went as horribly as she thought it would go. It was rather painless, almost. The two lawyers stood and began to talk about issues of the sort. Helga and Arnold stood up as well, preparing to leave.

Dustin stared at her hard. If looks could kill, he'd be a serial killer by now. Something caught his eye though. And odd bump on his soon to be ex-wife. Dustin was no fool, he knew exactly what it was, after all he'd been a 'dad' for three kids. He leaned forward and pointed a lazy finger at her, smiling a cocky grin.

"so.. I got you again eh?" he chuckled. Helga was completely blindsided by the question and shocked that he had figured out such a subtle thing. She all prepared to confess when…

"What are you talking about Dustin…" Arnold laced him and Helga's hands together, looking at his brother "…it isn't yours"

Dustin reared back instantly like he'd been hit by a ton of bricks. Arnolds heart was about to beat out of his chest because of what he'd just did. It was his first big time ever standing up to his big brother. His sibling stood and slammed his good hand down on the table

"Robert rip that paper up, I'm not pleading anymore!" he yelled

"what?" Robert jumped "why!"

"just do it!" he pointed to Helga "ill see your ass in court, bitch!"

_A/N: well, the drama is picking back up. So that was defiantly a very out of character thing for Arnold to do, but I deliberately did it. It was his first real time ever standing up to his big brother and he made damn well sure he was going to go out with a bang. Helga's starting to bring out the more, carefree side that I think Arnold possesses. I mean lets face it, in the show he may be the good guy, but don't you think he gets tired of being perfect all the time? don't you think he would want to do something spontaneous or just not to care for once. Its only human. Maybe its just me I don't know lol. But anyway, Dustin is fuming now and things are gonna start happening. Well anyway, I think I've yakked enough. I'm out--_


	18. love and plots

-Disclaimer: I don't on Hey Arnold

**Chapter: 18**

**Love and Plots**

The double wooden doors flew open from the force of a very irate woman storming through them. They smacked against the concrete stair walls from the hard push. She continued her mad journey down the stairs towards her vehicle. The sun was now starting to set causing everything to have a slight orange glow to it.

"Helga wait!" Her blonde companion came charging out the doors, giving them another beating.

"What the fuck was that!" she yelled back as she approached her SUV. She crossed her arms as she watched him approaching her, continuing to plead his heart out.

"Helga I'm sorry! I don't know what I was thinking—"

She dropped her arms and her face grimaced with remorse "Arnold, do you know what you did? Do you know how much trouble you sent me back?" She sighed and rubbed her forehead with her hand.

"I just…" He sighed and looked off away from her as if searching for help, or the right words to say. "…I just couldn't stand to let him say that to you"

"Well sometimes you just let things go! I now have a husband and two lawyers who believe that I have been cheating with you AND we have a baby! Do you know how this is gonna make me look?!" Helga raised her voice, making her point crystal clear

Arnold drew back "aren't you the one who told me don't worry about what other people thing?!" he raised his own voice to counter hers.

She glared and pointed her index finger at him "don't you use my words on me Arnold McGrath, this is completely different!"

"How so?!" he stepped back holding his arms out in defense "because you have money and people give a damn?" he raised his eyebrows and chuckled "please spare me, don't let you snob show"

Helga stood in silence and gaped at what her blonde friend had had the nerve to tell her. She then scowled at him and proceeded to open her card door to leave. He stepped forward with his hand and prevented her from doing so.

He lowered his voice, being more sincere "so that's it you're just going to run away now? Ignore me because I told you some truth?" he stepped closer, leaning down a little "I apologized; I don't know what more you want. Sometimes you say things you shouldn't and don't mean but that's life."

She stared at the pavement breathing hard, not wanting to look him in the face. She finally looked up at him and swallowed "Arnold, what I want, is for you to leave me alone for now. I just need to—"her sentence was abruptly silenced by his lips being pressed into hers. She was completely stunned and caught off guard by this.

Arnold drew back almost as quickly as he'd swooped in. he stepped back and looked off again once more for help "um… I'm sorry. That was…"

An awkward silence for both

Helga smirked a little before grabbing his shirt and dragging him down to her again, kissing him this time. He had one arm propped up against the SUV and the other holding her face, gently touching it.

"You know…" he whispered in-between kisses "…this kind of…confirms the rumor"

Helga opened her eyes a tad and smiled at him "yeah"

From a distance her estranged soon to be ex-husband was being loaded into a police car to be transported back to the county jail. As almost to add insult to injury he caught a glimpse of the pair against the SUV. It made him even angrier than he already currently was, because Dustin was the guy that could dish out but couldn't take back. He watched the vast amount of affection she was shoveling out to Arnold, and how he just ate it up.

Blood runs thicker than water, but in this case, it betrays you and takes over your former life. This blood might as well just not be. It's diluted and useless. Its water. He was going to fix the problem though; he'd make damn sure of it. He continued his thoughts in his head as he watched them pull apart and then get in the SUV and then drive off.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

The front door to Helga's apartment quietly peeked open a few inches. Her back was against it with Arnold against her. The two were acting like two school kids sneaking around.

"Anybody home?" he smiled, kissing her neck.

Helga giggled "I think they're out for awhile" she whispered

They pushed the door open and shut it never parting from each other. The two managed to make it, very slowly down the hall way to Helga's room. Arnold paused for a minute as he entered in to look around. He was amazed at how girl like it was. He'd always pictured Helga's room being filled with boards and sports stuff.

"Nice layer" he grinned. They stumbled across the room and collapsed on the bed continuing their make out session. It wasn't long at all before clothes started coming off.

"This is so wrong…" he whispered to her

"But what isn't…: she whispered back

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

The next morning was quiet peaceful and enjoyable waking up to for Arnold. He lay their on his back with his hands behind his head, the average guy position. Helga lay to the right of him sleeping half way on her side, and half way on her back. She was cute when she slept. He just watched her.

Finally over come with hunger and the mouthy ness of his stomach he quietly and gently got up out of the bed, careful not to disturb her. He searched around the bed until he found his clover leaf boxers and slid them on. He walked to the door, slipped out and closed it again, making his way down the hall to the kitchen. He walked into the kitchen and was startled by diamond sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal.

"h-hey…Arnold" Diamond put his spoon down, giving him a confused look

"Hey…" Arnold nodded, avoiding eye contact. He got himself a bowl out of the cabinet and sat down across from diamond. He poured his cereal and milk and began to eat it.

"So uh…" Diamond twirled his spoon around "long night?"

"Oh yeah…" Arnolds eyes widened as he responded, pushing all his cereal down under his milk

"…mom still asleep?" the boy poked again

"Uh huh…" Arnold took a bite of cereal

"Well! Before this conversation gets any more awkward I'm gonna take my leave" He stood up and slightly laughed. Arnold couldn't help but laugh a bit as well.

"Warn me next time will ya? Aye aye aye" Diamond said laughing as he exited the kitchen.

The blonde man sat there and shrugged looking at his cereal bowl. He picked it up and took it back to the room to prevent anymore awkward encounters this morning.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Dustin stood at the bars to his cell and waited for his favorite guard to get back to his cell. When he made round and passed his cell Dustin reached out and grabbed his shoulder, stopping him.

"That offer…its still on the table" he spoke very low

The guard drew back and looked at him directly, then over his shoulder. "give me a date.."

_A/N: it has been awhile. We R&R_


	19. She took the midday plane

-Disclaimer: I don't own it

**Chapter: 19**

**She took the midday plane**

Helga and Arnold still lay out sleepily in her bed into the late morning hours. She wore a simple old tee shirt she'd had forever and lay on her back propped up on a pillow. Arnold propped up facing her so he had his arms around her, crossed up underneath her lower back so he was scooted down. If he went to lay his head down it would lay down directly on her small stomach. He still wore just his dorky clover leaf boxers he put on earlier

"So what you wanna do today?" she beamed up to her, smiling like a kid

Helga returned his smiling gesture "well actually, I have a doctors appointment today" she then reached over to her black cherry night stand for her fossil watch to check the time. 11:03am.

"Hey" the male voice rung out. Helga turned back from her nigh stand to question but quickly realized it wasn't talking to her. "You here that? We might get to see what you look like today" he said again to her little bump of a stomach."

He would admit he found it adorable

"Well…" she sat the watch back down it its former place "unfortunately it won't look like much yet" she laughed

"It's still cool; I mean it's a tiny human in there!" Arnold said enthusiastically staring at her stomach. He was intrigued and thrilled and everything.

Helga just sighed and crossed her arms "it's amazing how things turn out huh? I never would have guessed this would be happening now"

"What ya mean?" her companion cocked his head

"Well in out elementary days I would have never guessed all these past events would have taken place. And then all my time canoodling with Dustin in high school because all I ever wanted to be was a Mrs. McGrath. Who would of though it would suck huh?" she giggled a bit

Arnold pulled his arms out from under her and lifted himself up a bit, grinning "you just had the wrong McGrath that's all…"

"My, my Arnold. What are you trying to say?" she played back

"You were my preschool terror…" he started inching up her body "…but you still fascinated me, no matter how mean you were. And…we got into high school and I watched… you fill out…and grow into a beautiful girl…" He then slowly kissed her neck, underneath the side of her jaw "…but all that lovely attention went to my brother…"

Helga uncrossed her arms and elevated them, running them through his dirty blonde locks of hair. "So you had a crush on me" she stated quietly

"Maybe I did…" he brushed his soft lips up against hers "…my secret"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

"Are you sure you got everything?" Jason asked once more to his already nodding girlfriend.

"Yes!" she said, semi-slowly to get the point across, she had everything she needed.

"How long are you gonna be gone again?" he put his hands in his pockets, watching his feet play on the tile floor

"A few days…" she sighed. She looked back to her flight schedule monitor "I gotta get going baby."

"I'll miss you" he herded her into a hug, and then a kiss.

"I'll miss you too. I'll call you when I get there" Rhonda pulled away and smiled reassuringly.

"_Now boarding flight 23 to Los Angeles California" _

The over head system spoke

She picked up her designer purse and put it on her shoulder, along with her carry on bag. She gave him one last peck on the lips before heading off to her plane. She turned in her round trip pass port and boarded on to her first class spot. The space was decent she thought. She could deal with it.

She took her seat in a leather chair and relaxed. She was admittedly a bit nervous about what she was doing. But at the same time, she knew exactly what she was doing.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

"I'm glad you came down here mom" Dustin's face held an empty stare as the looked at the table

"Why didn't you tell me this was going on honey?" his mother leaned across the table grabbing her son's hand

"Because I didn't want to worry you" he shifted his cold eyes up to her

"Dustin, this is something worth worrying about…what happened?" her eyes never left her son

Dustin shrugged and withdrew his arms and crossed them, leaned back in his chair. "She left me mom. She took my stuff, my money, my kids and concocted this God forsaken lie that I beat up on her"

His brow furrowed further "she's been sleeping with Arnold behind my back"

Stella gasped and straightened up at the words that left her eldest sons mouth. "Arnold?!"

"Yes…" he said slowly, slightly annoyed "Arnold. Some brotherly love huh?"

"Why would he do that? Why would Helga do that?" Stella shook her head, trying to make sense of everything that she was being told

"It's what I intend to find out mother. I just need you to support me"

"Well of course dear. You're my son" she smiled at him

Dustin internally smiled at his feat of getting his mother on his side. Or well, beating Arnold to her with a story. He's poor gullible mother.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

"Ah and there it is. Right there" a tall black haired man pointed a pen at a fuzzy black and white screen.

"That blob?" Arnold squinted at the screen

"Yes that blob" Helga answered his question before her doctor could. She laid comfortably on a white padded table with the ultrasound scanner on her belly.

"Sure doesn't look like much yet" he smirked looking back at her

"Well, I told you so" she replied, jokingly

"you wont be seeing anything very human like until she progresses into the pregnancy a little further" the doctor commented, taking the scanner off and turning off the ultrasound machine. "But everything thing looks great. You're in good shape. Make sure you eat healthy and all…I don't think I have to preach it to you" the doctor laughed

"But if she doesn't..." he looked at Arnold "dad, make sure she does"

Arnold eyes diverted from Helga to the doctor "But…I'm…not...oh never mind"

"Well let's get you two out of here. Yall probably have things to do today" he rubbed his hands together getting up. Arnold helped Helga off her padded thrown. They checked out at the receptionist desk and headed out on their merry way.

They ventured outside the doctor office onto the sidewalk, the sun was bright and there wasn't a cloud in the sky to ruin it.

"So what else is on your list today?" he slipped his hand around her waist

"Oh nothing too important. Shopping." She smiled up at him

"Shopping?! Shopping?! Why must I suffer!" he looked to the sky and yelled out sarcastically "nah im just picking. Lets go I need new pants"

Helga sputtered a bit laughter "what the heck"

They both laughed as they got into Arnolds sedan ready to begin the other half of their day.

_A/N: ah, chapter completed. Okay so Helga and Arnold have finally gotten out a lot of that sexual tension yes? Well the story moves on people. Read and review like always. Some stuff is fixing to happen in the up coming chapters involving Dustin, Helga, Arnold and Bob with a gun. Oh yeah, and then theirs Rhonda. Hooray. Oh yeah before I go I would like to announce that I made the review thing so you all can review anonymously if ya'll like. I didn't even know I had to set for no anonymous. Go figure. Anyway im out--_


	20. Confrontation Date

I don't own HA

**Confrontation Date**

Helga sat on her couch in her apartment once again going through bills, files and an assortment of other necessities to sustain and improve her life. It didn't seem to bother her though. She looked up from what she was doing and smirked thinking of Arnold saying "_the American way of having fun, eh?" _She was very proud to admit she was the happiest she'd been in years.

She stopped what she was doing to lean back and just let her overwhelming happiness engulf every bit of her. After everything she'd been through it was almost like God was finally smiling down on her once again.

"Alright mom… some explaining" A male voice behind her barked, jerking her from her warm abyss in daydream land.

She turned her head around to see her son Ace walking around the couch with a magazine rolled up in her fist.

"Well, lay it on me" she leaned over and began stacking all her paperwork together, largely just to make it look like she was doing work.

"I was just wondering about this tabloid article" he flopped down beside her flipping to certain laminated page of the magazine.

He showed it to her. The article had a picture of Helga and Arnold on there shopping fiasco the day before. It had an arrow pointing to her bump of a belly with text that said "_Husband says it's not his_"

"I mean I know you have to take these things with a grain of salt but what the heck mom?" he stared at her

"Ace do you really think I would have cheated on your father?" she questioned back

"Well, what ya'll have been doing lately isn't exactly innocent. You aren't even divorced yet" he flopped the magazine on the table, bolding his point.

She sighed "Ace, why does it matter."

Ace sat there staring at the table not making the slightest attempt to answer his mother.

"Ace, of course I never cheated on you father. What's the sudden change in you? One minute you hate his guts and the now you want to defend him?" she put her arm over his back

"Mom…" he stood up and looked at her "I'm not defending him…" he paused "…I just don't want you to look bad in the press"

"Oh...Sweetie…don't worry about things like that. I'm gonna get bad press regardless. Anything to make a story"

As he was nodding the phone rang, Helga smiled at her son then turned to answer it.

"Hello?"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

"Hello there" Arnold answered back. He sat in his office in between patients.

"_Shouldn't you be working" _Helga flirted back to him

"In-between patients at the moment. Are you free tonight for dinner?" He smiled, twirling the phone cord on the desk with his index finger

"_Of course, where do you have in mind?" _

"That place down near my house. It's Italian. I forget the name. But it's pretty good"

"_Sounds good to me. I guess I'll be ready around…7:00?" _She smiled

"I'll be at you house around that time. Perfect." He looked at his watch and quickly realized his next patient should be in the lobby area. "oh hey, I gotta get back to work. I'll see you tonight dear"

"_Ha-ha, alright. Bye football head" _she hung up the phone.

"Bye" he hung up his end. He smiled his ear to ear grin as he got up skipping to his office door for his patient. His day just got 110 percent better.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Raven haired Rhonda stood in her hotel bath room staring at the mirror. Her hair was a little messy from sleep and her makeup worn off. She walked up closely to the mirror looking at herself closely. She ran a skinny hand back through her hair attempting to smooth it out a bit. She turned the faucet on never looking away from the mirror.

She finally looked down at the running water. Cupping her hands together up under the water letting it fill till she finally splashed it over her face.

"Jesus Christ…" she muttered reaching for a towel to wipe the water from her face.

She barely got it wiped off before her cell phone began to chime from the night table. She took the towel with her as she headed back to the bed to answer it.

"Hey sweetie" she cooed into the phone "…yeah I got in safe…nothing for the day I plan to get things sorted out tonight. How are things there...Alright, I'll call you tonight. I love you too…bye"

She signed as she clicked the phone line off.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

"How are we going to do this?" Dustin stood staring through black bars.

"Don't worry about how I have my ways" The tainted guard snapped back

Dustin rolled his eyes and paced around his cell, thinking. He walked back to the bars. "I'm paying you enough I should know!"

"And I said don't worry about it, you just be ready to go tonight"

The guard gave Dustin a 'don't question me' look and Dustin cooled his jets for the time being. He we back over to his little cot and sat down on it. Time would not go fast enough for him. Not tonight anyway.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

(That night)

'Knock knock'

Helga heard the pounded on her front door as she was finishing her mascara in the mirror. She put the black brush stick back in the tube and gave her self the once over look. She wore a simple black dress that she went out and bought that day. Her other evening attire was becoming too tight for her growing belly.

Satisfied with her self she left her room to answer the door.

"Right on time Mister" she said to Arnold as she opened the door.

He smiled "wow, you look…amazing Helga" He walked in and closed the door behind him.

"Thank you" she blushed a bit "you look very striking yourself"

Arnold wore a white long sleeve white tux shirt with black pants, he had the matching black pea jacket, and instead of a traditional tie he wore a black bow tie.

"Thanks" he smiled back "hey you come here" he grabbed her hand and tugged her back to him. He wrapped his arms around her and leaned in to her. The two shared a long kiss.

They finally parted and headed out the door for their first official date.

"Now I know you aren't used to riding around in average American cars but I think you'll be fine in this for the night" Arnold joked to her as he opened up the passenger door to his sedan.

"Arnold, this is fine and you know it" she said as she sat down in the seat. He ran around to the driver's side and got in.

"This place is excellent; I know you're going to like it. I reserved a table outside" he cranked the car and pulled out down the road.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

"Arnold this place is amazing. It's been forever since I've had Italian this good" She smiled taking the last bite of her chicken parmesan

"Good I'm glad you liked it" he took a sip from his wine.

Helga finished chewing and took a sip from her water, staring at Arnold. "No really, thank you for this. It's been awhile since I felt…this good"

"I'm really glad things have worked out this well between us Helga. I hope they continue to grow. I'm just so happy that you didn't judge me for my brother's actions or think we're alike." He swirled his wine

"I'm not a judgmental person, you know that. I've always known you were nothing like him." She paused "I'm glad you're in my life" she smiled to him

Arnold glanced to his peripheral and noticed the band was playing and people were getting up and slow dancing.

"Would you like to dance" he asked her

"Of course" she outstretched her arm and he grabbed her hand as they both stood up. They walked to the little dance area and began to slow dance.

As they were slowly swaying Helga layed her head on his shoulder breathing in his scent feeling complete and whole for the first time. She opened her eyes up to see a familiar raven haired figure standing in the outside dinning park staring at them.

Helga stopped moving and just stared at her shocked. Arnold felt her freeze up and turned to see why.

"What's wrong?" He asked her and then looked to where she was looking. He froze as well.

"Rhonda?" he sputtered "when did…how did you…"

"I flew down…and your roommate told me you were here…" she said, sounding hurt. "You…express you desperate love to me and when I come back to you…you're with someone else." She stared at Helga obviously not recognizing her. "What a waste right, You fly by night asshole…"

She turned and walked out of the outside dinning part and onto the street.

"Rhonda wait!" Arnold yelled to her. He looked back to Helga for help.

"Go to her Arnold. You want to, now go. I'll be fine" she smiled to him

"But Helga I—"he got cut off

"Go Arnold…"

He sighed before finally running off down the street after her. Helga watched him until he was out of sight. She walked over to the table grabbed her jacket and hailed a cab home.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

She arrived home to a dark house. Her kids were who knows where and honestly she didn't care at the moment. She just wanted to crawl into some pajamas and watch TV eating a tub of chocolate ice cream. She walked to your bedroom and slipped out of her dress slowly and into some comfortable sweat pants and a t-shirt. She moped to the couch and turned on the TV to a CSI episode.

She watched to show for about 45 minutes, not really into it but more into her thoughts. It was just a noise solution for the overwhelming quietness.

'Knock knock" she jumped, having been unaware of anything but her thoughts

She trudged to the door and opened it.

"Arnold?" she said, baffled. He stood on her steps hands in his pockets now. "Where's Rhonda at?"

He smirked "I told her I was with somebody else now"

She got more confused "but Arnold, obviously you love her, go to her"

Arnold stepped up the stairs and more into the house causing Helga to back up a bit.

"Helga, I told her I was with someone else. I'm in love with someone else." He cupped his hands around her face and stared at her. "I don't know how you feel about me, I'm sure the same way…but I'm head over heels in love with you Helga. I want you."

She dropped her head a bit to advert his eyes "it's not fair of me though. I have all these excess problems and baggage. Tonight made me realize how much I'm holding you back."

"Helga…Helga look at me" she slowly made contact with his eyes. She watched him smile "I don't care. I love you for you. You're not holding me down. I'm with you because I want to be with you"

The two of them met with a passionate deep kiss. No words were necessary to explain feelings in this situation. He picked her up gently and walked them back to her bed room. She layed her down softly onto the made bed. As quickly as he did she started tearing his clothes off. In a split second both were under the covers making love with more passion than either of them had ever felt.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Dustin found himself running in pitch black dark through the woods. He hadn't heard any sirens yet so he signaled that as a good thing. He ran until he came to a road. He figured the first place he'd head was his mothers to get on his feet. He had others stops but this would be his first.

He put his hands in his pockets and began walks the long paved road.

_**A/N: phew. Well back again. I go in strides I know. Anyway let me know how you all like it. R&R please. Positive please. Thanks to all of you all out there that have kept up with this bohimeth. Later **_


	21. Mother knows worse Father knows best

I don't own HA

Mother knows worse father knows best 

Stella McGrath sat in her cozy little three-bedroom town house on the Far East side of Hillwood. She sat planted in an old rugged looking reclining chair with a cup of coffee, a cooking magazine and the TV on Jeopardy. She sipped her coffee, her eyes never leaving the game show of choice. It was dark out and she'd be heading to bed after the show. She was alone in the house, seeing as her husband had passed a few years ago.

A commercial hit just as her coffee mug was running low. She slowly forced herself out of the chair and to her kitchen for just a bit more of the caffeine drug before bed. As she trudged to her kitchen a hasty knock made her jump, almost dropping her mug. She froze for a second to see if whoever or whatever would knock again. The knock indeed did come again and even louder than the first.

She slowly and quietly tip toed to her front door, very afraid to open it. She stood there in front of it silently once more to see if they would knock again or just go away. For the third time the knock violently cracked against the door.

"Who is it..?" she squeaked out.

"It's me Mom! Dustin!"

She quickly unlocked the door and opened it "Dustin! What are you doing here?" she breathed out relieved it was only her son

"I got out Mom, I have no place to go at the moment" she sighed stepping into his mothers house. She shut and locked the door behind him.

"When did you get out?" she questioned, walking back to her chair and setting the mug on the side stand

"Today, just a few hours ago. Parole" he lied walking into the den after her. He sat down on the couch near her chair.

"You couldn't just go to your house dear? Did they ban you from it?" she sat down in her chair. She grabbed the TV remote and muted it before turning back to her eldest son.

"I have no money at the moment and Helga had everything turned off there. No water, no electricity" he shrugged, stretching the truth yet again

Stella's face crinkled up at the mention on Helga.

"I can't believe how she's treated you Dustin. I can't understand why" His mother said to him sincerely confused

"You and me both mom. I cant believe my own brother turned on me with her." he flopped into the back of the couch.

"Your brother is gullible. I need to give him a call and ask him what's going on with all of this nonsense" Stella replied back slightly disgusted

"Hey mom you know you're gonna be a grandma to a new edition?"

Stella stared at him confused

"Arnold and Helga…" He nodded to her

"Do what?" she blurted out

"Oh yeah. Pretty fucked up isn't it mom. My own brother doing some shit like that to me. He just comes in and thinks he can take over my life." Dustin's face

"That's just horrible! I can't believe that" she gawked. "Yalls father would have a heart attack if he knew you boys were acting this way"

"He wasn't my dad mom I don't know why you keep insisting he was" he growled back at her

"After all he did for you, you still treat him that way. He loved you like you were his own! Have some respect Dustin" she raised her voice back

Dustin opened his mouth to snap back but quickly shut it. He realized that keeping on his mom's good side was the only thing that was going to benefit him at the moment. He sucked it up instead.

He leaned forward on the couch and propped his elbows up on his knees and put his head in his hands. An attempt to look real pathetic like.

"I plan to go talk to them" his voice muffled out

"If you think that's best dear you do that." She sighed "and you can stay here as long as you need…you're room is still here" she smiled

Dustin smiled back "Thanks mom…"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

(Next morning)

Gold little rays of lights punctured through the shut blinds in Helga's bedroom. Something that wouldn't have bothered her except for the fact that it was shinning on her face. She went to sleep the night before smiling and woke up smiling, facing her nightstand. The bed sheet neatly pulled up under her arm covering her up. She thought of it as being perfect. Movie perfect to be exact.

She breathed in with that warm joyous feeling and turned over to face the other side of the bed. Arnold lie there staring at her, smiling like a kid.

"Good morning sweetie" he said softly, lifting his arm up and stroking her cheek with his hand.

"Good morning" she smiled like a kid. She leaned forward inviting him into a deep kiss.

When they parted Arnold sneaked a peck onto her forehead "Quite a night last night huh?" he said

"Yeah it was. I'm still on fire inside" Helga replied back softly. She pulled his face to her and gave him a kiss on the lips "I love you" she said shyly after the kiss

"I love you too sweat heart" he smiled to her and kissed her again.

Helga sucked in air and flopped on her back "I still can't believe you picked me over Rhonda"

Arnold looked at her shocked "Oh don't treat it like a competition. Her chapter in my life is over and done with." He reached his arm over and rubbed up her leg to her stomach. "I want to be with you and only you now"

Helga looked at Arnold and smiled at the complete wholeness he was making her feel. "I love you sweetheart"

"I love you too" she kissed her and then gave his wrist a twist to look at the time on his watch. 9:00am

"Geez…" he looked at her sadly "Work…"

Helga sighed and nodded. "Alright…get out of here. I'll be hear when you get out of the office" she smiled to him.

"I'm going to jump in the shower if you don't mind" he pointed towards the door of the room

"Yeah go ahead" she confirmed to him.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

"How does that make you feel?" A blonde male sat in a comfortable leather chair staring at a young woman in a chair across from him.

"How would you feel if you'd been adopted and your parents never told you until you were and adult?" she paused holding in anger "I feel betrayed"

"You feel betrayed by their secrecy about being adopted" he replied to her coolly

"Yes, I should have been told about this year ago!" the woman became very fidgety and irate

"Well have you ever thought that they kept it a secret to insure that your child hood was normal?" he looked at her for a question but none came "let me rephrase. Maybe they didn't tell you during your childhood and teenage hood because they didn't want to ruin your growing years by shoving a large load onto your plate. No child needs to be burdened by the idea that they were adopted."

"I guess you have a point…" she reasoned

Arnold looked at the clock "well, our time is up for the day" he stood up and smiled. The woman stood up as well and headed to the door.

"I'll see you next week doctor" she smiled before exacting the room. Arnold walked back to his desk and sat down in his chair. He opened up that patients file and began jotting down notes in the time he had in-between patients.

He heard his office door click open as he penned in the file. "I'll see you in 10minutes Judy…" he replied to the sound, never looking up from his notes. He didn't hear an exit response, keying him to look up to see…

Rhonda.

She stood there like a shy girl dressed in a red designer shirt and jeans holding her purse down by her side.

"Hi…" he said to her, extremely confused by her visit

"Hey…." She paused "…I'm sorry for disturbing you; I was just letting you know that I was heading back to New York."

"No problem" he replied back

"I'm happy for you." She smiled "I wish you the best in life"

Arnold smiled at her genuinely "Thank you Rhonda"

"What's her name?" she asked curiously, even though she knew it wasn't her business

Arnold leaned back in his chair "Rhonda…That's Helga Pataki"

Rhonda's eyes got wide when she heard that name. "Wow…didn't even recognize her."

"Yeah, she's a different person now" he smiled just talking about her

"Yeah I guess we all change over time. But, I've got to catch my plane soon." She smiled to him turning to head for the door. She opened it and looked back at him "take care of yourself Arnold…and Helga" after that she walked out of the office

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 

**(That night)**

'Knock knock'

The sound muffled through the door and into the apartment. Helga walked out of the kitchen where she had been popping some popcorn. She opened the door to Arnold's smiling face. He was carrying two pizza boxes in his left hand.

"Hey it's the pizza guy" Helga joked to him. Arnold laughed and walked in.

He sniffed the air "I think I smell….popcorn." his eyes lit up. He walked to the kitchen and sat the two pizzas down on the counter. He then grabbed a handful of popcorn out the bowl and gobbled it down.

"Cant have it with-out a movie" she walked over and gave him a peck on the lips before opening one of the pizza boxes.

"So what movie did you get?" he wiped his hands before rooting through the cabinets for a couple of plates.

"The notebook…" she picked up a piece of pepperoni pizza and took a bite. Arnold turned and gave her a 'are-you-serious' look. Helga covered her mouth to laugh, see has she'd just took a bit of pizza.

She finished chewing and swallowed "I'm kidding!" she rolled her eyes sarcastically " I got Smokin' Aces."

"Thank God" he laughed, handing her a plate.

"That's a great movie by the way. You'd like it if you gave it a chance" she said to him, very informing like

"It's still a chick movie, so I'm going to pass" he flopped himself some pizza on to a plate. Arnold then grinned and gave her a loving kiss.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Dustin sat on his mothers couch inching a fuzzy sock up his foot. He did one foot and then the other. He then slipped on his black and white athletic shoes and tied them individually.

"Are you doing out tonight Dustin" his mother walked into the living room

"Yeah mom I'm just going to go for a jog" he stood up, lying once more. Something that came all too easy to him.

"Well dear its dark out are you sure that's safe?" Stella asked

"I'll be fine mom. Don't worry. I'll be back later" he walked to the door opened it and left.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

"Come on! Run Run Run!!" Big burly Bob jumped out of his beloved reclining chair red faced yelling to his big screen TV. "Dammit! You retard!" he yelled when the player he was rooting for was tackled.

He sat back in his chair on the edge of it, still angry but intently watching the game. He sat there for a few more minutes. Bob then grabbed a small remote and muted the TV with his thumb.

"Lucille!" he called. A few seconds later a tiny woman that was his live in maid came to the door of his living room.

"Yes sir?" she said politely

"How many beers are left in the fridge?"

"About six sir, do you won't me to grab you a couple?" she nodded

"No don't worry about it Lucille, you can head onto bed if you life. I can get it myself later" he smiled to her

"Okay, good night sir" she waved and headed up the stairs. Bob had calmed down and sat back in his chair. He had to make sure he didn't raise his blood pressure. He un-muted the TV and flipped the channel to the local news, as he figured that game was a waste to watch anymore of.

He sort of lazily watched the anchors yap on and on about little nothings. Or well things that he considered not of any real importance.

"_And Officials say they still have not caught 41 year old Dustin McGrath after his break out the night before. Still no word on how the escape was pulled off, officials say there could have been inside work. "_

A picture of his mug shot was shown on the TV next with a number to call if you'd seen him.

"Shit…" Bob jumped up from his chair "holy hell" He grabbed his home phone and punched in a number code with his index. It rang, and rang and rang. His eyes darted around the room, becoming nervous. He jerked the phone away from his face cursing it

"Dammit Helga, answer you phone!" he dialed in another phone code. It also ran into oblivion. He pulled the phone away from his face again and sighed. He shoved it in his pocket and briskly walked up the stairs to his room. He yanked open a desk drawer so hard it almost came off. Bob felt up under some clothes and grabbed the solid Steel weapon he came for. His black dessert eagle handgun.

Bob quickly made his way back down stairs. He went out the garage door and hopped in his old school Hummer truck. He backed down the drive way and peeled out into the night.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

"Daaannng" Arnold stretched out the phrase watching a particular graphic scene in the movie. His arm was out stretched over Helga's shoulder as she leaned against his body. They had moved the pizza boxes into the den onto the coffee table along with the drinks and popcorn.

"They tore each other apart!" he added onto over stretched expression.

"Yeah they did. I'd hate to be a hit man" she replied.

They sat comfortably in there house. Outside the house a prowler scowled around the perimeter looking for the most convenient way in. He crept up the steps to the front door. He gently gave the handle a test turn and to his surprise….it wasn't locked. He continued turning until the door silently started sliding opening. He stepped in to the house and took a deep breath. He looked around and heard the loud noise of the movie coming from the den. He crept into towards the living area and saw the TV, the back of the couch and the heads and necks of Arnold and Helga. He was silent about his walking, very.

Arnold as he was watching the moving suddenly got the feeling that somebody was watching him. The hot staring feeling on the back of his head and it made him extremely uncomfortable. He turned around to see who it was.

He didn't see anybody.

Instead he saw a white blurred image speeding towards his face.

_**A/N: another chapter down, the story trudges on. R&R positive please. It keeps me motivated. Thanks to all the people that have been loyal reviewers! I appreciate yalls support so much! Until next time, later! **_


	22. The Fighting McGrath's

I don't own HA

**The Fighting McGrath's**

Arnold's head smacked back as the force of the fist cracked against the side of his skull. His arm left arm flew up around this head to shield himself. He was in considerable pain even though he didn't scream or yell about it. His older brother smacked him again with his fist in the back of the head, causing Arnold to fly forward onto the coffee table. Helga screamed and jumped off the couch.

As Dustin headed around the couch Arnold regained his footing, slightly wobbly very much in a dazed state of mind, however clear minded enough to know he need to fight. Arnold lunged at him, tackling him to the ground. On top of his big brother he took swing after swing, cracking into his face. His fists were bloody, cut and bruised. Dustin punched him in the face causing Arnold to bow back off this brother.

Dustin jumped onto Arnold and began beating him in the face and head relentlessly. Arnold grabbed his attacker's throat with his hands and began squeezing to stop his blows.

"You fucked up Arnold!" Dustin screamed at him, his face turning red because of Arnold squeezing his throat.

Helga had long been ran to the kitchen for a weapon and the phone. She stood from the kitchen looking at the two men killing each other in her living room as she was on the phone with police.

"S-s-sixteen thirty…P-Paladin Avenue…" she said hastily, shaking with fear. "Just hurry please!" she hung up the phone

She ran to the kitchen drawers and starting yanking them open, almost pulling them out of the hubs. She rummaged through them quickly looking for a good weapon. She found a decent sized culinary knife in the third drawer she opened.

Helga turned around to head back to the two brothers….

…but froze seeing her husband in the door way breathing very heavily. Sweat dripped down his face mixing in with the blood coming from this nose and corner of this mouth. The cast on his arm which was once blue was now a sick green color from the blood spillage.

"What you got there…?" he said in-between breaths

"Why are you doing this?" she ignored his question, her eyes began to fill with water to the point her vision blurred. He began walking to her but was countered by her backing away from him.

"I just want to be a family again. I love you Helga" he wiped some blood of his face, smirking

"I don't love you Dustin!" she yelled to him. Her husband's face furrowed and he exhaled and inhaled very deeply.

It seemed for one second in times pattern it stood still as they stared at each other. Dustin lunged at her, grabbing her hand with the knife and her throat. He squeezed her hand until the knife dropped, bouncing against the tile with metallic clicks. He dragged her to the couch and pushed her back onto.

Arnold lay sprawled out on the floor beside the coffee table, blood all over his face and all over the floor beside him. Dustin crawled on top of Helga, straddling her on the couch. He grabbed her face with his hand and twisted it in his little brother's direction.

"He's dying Helga…" he said, emotionless. Helga felt a tear run down the side of her cheek. She couldn't hold the swell back anymore in her eyes.

"They'll be nobody left for you but me…" he yanked her head back to face him. He smiled at her.

"We can move on Helga…we can get past this. We can put our little family back together"

"Fuckin' asshole!" she spat at him "I hope you burn in hell!"

He slapped her across the face "I'll see you there you whore!" he drew back his fist to put a bruising on her. She closed her eyes not wanting to see it coming.

It never did.

She opened her eyes to see her father leaning over the back of the couch holding a gun to the side of Dustin's head

"Get up!" Bob growled deeply. Dustin did what he was told, slowly getting off Helga and the couch. Bob marched him around the couch and made him lay face down on the floor with his hands behind his back. Helga flew at the speed of sound to Arnold's side.

She picked up his head and laid it in her lap. "Arnold...talk to me honey!"

Arnold grumbled incoherently, his face grimacing in severe pain.

"Keep him awake Helga!" Bob yelled back to his daughter

"Arnold, baby you have to stay with me can you do that" He nodded ever so limp back to her, she almost didn't catch it. "…stay with me, don't you die on me" a few tears streaked down her cheek thinking about the last sentence she'd said.

The police barged in the open front door with their guns raised, yelling at Bob to drop his. Bob explained he had a permit and they left it alone. They hand cuffed Dustin and dragged him out to the awaiting police cars. A cop motioned for the EMTs to head up. Within seconds 3 of them surrounded Helga and Arnold. They pried Helga away from him to strap him to a board with a neck brace and took him out the door.

Helga followed them down the steps to the awaiting ambulance.

"Mom!" Diamond shouted to her down the street. Helga stopped as Diamond ran towards her.

"What's going on?!" she looked around bewildered.

"You're father" she said. Diamond looked past her to see a crumpled version of Arnold in the ambulance and he cursed.

"Find your brother and sister…" his mother told him. The boy nodded and watched his mother go and hop into the ambulance with Arnold.

Diamond looked around at the surround police cars. He didn't have to search long to see the one with the occupant in it. He walked to it, busting with anger and hatred. The front windows were down so he could yell through the bars.

The boy goes to the car with his father in it and leaned inside the driver's side window, looking through the cage at him.

"Haven't you caused enough trouble!" he yelled "I wish you would just leave just fucking disappear you piece of shit!"

Dustin never looked up at him

"Look what you've done! You ruin everything you fucking bastard!! I'd get in there and kick your ass myself if I could!!"

At this point a cop saw him and went over to the car.

"Sir get out of the car!" he yelled to Diamond, who wasn't listening

"I hate you! I hate you! I hope you rot in fucking prison!" he said before the cop dragged him out of the window

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

Helga sat in a room with Arnold in a bed with tubes down his throat and bandages on his head and face. It had been about 4hrs since the incident. Doctors said he was stable and should be fine, but he was doped up on heavy medication.

She sat in the chair, numb and still in shock. Her eyes were puffy and blood shot red. She couldn't recall a time where she'd ever cried this much. She was incredibly fatigued as well but her eye lids refused to close in fear of something happening. A couple more minutes when by before the room door slowly swung open and Stella McGrath walked in.

"Oh my God…" she gasped, seeing her youngest son in the bed. She briskly walked to the side of his bed, bending over him to look at his injuries. She leaned up to see Helga sitting in the chair

"What are you doing here" she glared at her

Helga looked back, extremely confused by her mother-in-laws dirty look

"I'd prefer if you left. I can't believe you would drag Arnold into your unfaithfulness" Stella remarked

Helga gawked and stood up "look Stella I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Whatever you came in with shoved up your ass I suggest you take care of it because now is not the time!"

Stella drew back offended "you know exactly what I'm talking about! And spare me your excuses my boy as already told me what you've done to him"

"Oh yeah Stella, and what has 'your boy' told you huh? I want to know!" Helga spat

"I think it's horrible that you cheated on him. And with Arnold! You dragged him into it! And you made false accusations of Dustin being abusive to divorce him because you're having Arnold's baby!" she yelled back to her daughter-in-law

Helga's mouth dropped open with sheer shock and what Stella believed to be true. She closed her eyes to regain thought before replying

"Were you born yesterday?! First of all Dustin is not the sweet boy you tell yourself. He beat me Stella! He has for years!" she tossed her hands in the air "I left by holding him it gun point! He got that broken arm because me of defending myself against him with a bat after he attacked me! You want proof read the police report! Arnold has been helping me through this entire divorce. Yes now we are an 'item' not before…NOW that's why I'm here. And this baby…"

Helga put a hand on her growing stomach "…this baby is 100 percent Dustin McGrath's courtesy of your son's marital rape!"

Stella stood there quiet looking at Helga and then back to Arnold lying in the bed asleep. She shifted her eyes back to Helga and then to the bed.

"How do I know you aren't lying to me" She said softly

"Because I have no reason to lie about this. Arnold will tell you the same story when he wakes up, so will my kids, and my dad" Helga replied

"I believe you Helga…" Stella responded "…and I'm sorry for the way I acted a second ago…"

Her daughter-in-law nodded "thank you Stella" she smiled

Helga sat back down in her chair, to cool off a bit. Stella pulled up a chair to her son's side and held his hand. A brief spill of silence went by, neither of them uttering a word.

"It's just so hard…to except that your child is wrong and doing wrong…" Stella spoke out still looking at Arnold.

She looked at Helga "…I'm sure you already know that as a mother though..."

Helga nodded to her "yeah…I do…very much so. It's really easy to find a scapegoat"

"Frightenly easy…" Stella sighed and looked down at the blanket on the bed. "How far are you along?" she looked back to her

"Four months" Helga smiled

"I honestly don't see how you do it. Two twin boys and a girl. I could barely handle my two boys. You must know a secret that the rest of us don't" the two of them shared a laugh.

"Ya know Arnold always wanted kids but that girl he married didn't. I'm glad at least one son gave me grandchildren" they laughed again.

"Well I'm planning to buy a house around the hillwood area so, hopefully you'll visit more often than just Christmas like it use to be" Helga said, smiling seeing Stella's eyes light up

"That would be great Helga" she smiled

_**A/N: well that's the end of that chapter. Action and down time. I thought the Stella and Helga down time was good, they got out their problems (caused by Dustin) and started trying to mend their relationship. The story is getting nearer to its completion and I'm quite sad about that. I've enjoyed writing this piece. Anyway R&R please, keep the motivation up with me. **_


	23. Pesky Flashbacks

I don't own it

**Pesky Flashbacks**

**(Flashback)**

It was around noon on a Friday afternoon as Helga McGrath drove down the interstate to her husband's work building, to bring him his cell phone he'd forgotten at home that morning. She wasn't all that thrilled about going to his job, but wanted to get out the house anyway. She'd decided to drop it off earlier than she said so she could go do some light shopping.

His agency was about 30 minutes outside of Hillwood and about 20 minutes outside of their sea side neighborhood estate. She figured she might put the extra drive time in to go to the stores down around Rodeo Drive.

She exited of the interstate and onto the highway. His building wasn't much farther after the exit. After two or three stoplights she signaled to the right and turned into this parking lot. She saw his red truck and one or two other cars. She imagined mostly everybody was out eating their lunch.

She got out of her SUV with his phone, walked into the building and boarded the elevator to the 2nd floor. The elevator shifted to a stop and beeped for the doors open. They did and she walked out, greeted by loud techno music. It was coming from his office however she didn't think it was odd, he often blasted that type of music when he worked. It got him "in the jive" he said once.

Helga walked to the office doors hearing the music blare louder than ever now. She grabbed the left door handle with her left hand and slowly slipped it open a tad and peeked in to see. She was mortified. Her husband was working but not on paperwork, on one of his models.

His pants were down and he had her up on the desk banging her brains out. His back was to the door so he couldn't see that he was being watched, or hear for that matter. Helga shut the door quick and briskly walked back to the elevator and took it down. She walked out of the building and back into her vehicle.

(**End of flashback)**

Helga jerked awake from the nightmare she'd just had. She sighed and rubbed the sleep out of her tired sore eyes. It was weird she thought, how she hadn't had a flashback in awhile and now suddenly she had one again. They were horrible she hated them. She thought about the one she'd just had, she was 31 when that happened. Six years ago she'd had that encounter. She grimaced at the idea.

She was moved from her thoughts by Arnold groaning awake. The tubes had been removed from his mouth apparently sometime while he was asleep. Helga got up and walked over to him.

"Helga…" he grumbled

"I'm right here honey…" she wrapped her fingers around his hand

"Helga I can't see…" he whimpered out, his eyes were black and swollen shut

"Arnold, you're eyes are swollen shut" she rubbed his arm for comfort "how do you feel?"

"It's sore" Arnold replied his face crumpling

"Do you need me to get anything for you?" she asked

"I need to pee" he began sitting up.

"Whoa Arnold, sweetie you have a catheter in, you can just go" she pushed him back down gently

"Really?" he laid back down, his question almost childlike

"Yeah you can" she smiled, slightly laughing.

He quieted down for a bit before talking some more, this time livelier as the morphine was wearing.

"Did he hurt you?" Arnold asked

"No I'm okay" she squeezed his hand and one corner of his mouth slightly jerked up in attempt to make a smile

"Good…I was afraid he had hurt you or the baby" he sighed

"Were both okay sweetie…" she said smiling to him, even though he couldn't see it. She took her hand and light brushed her fingers through his blonde hair.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you…" He continued with embarrassment in his tone

"Arnold it's not your fault. He blindsided you" her words seem to comfort him and bring up his esteem some.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

**(1 day later)**

"You okay?" Helga took her eyes off the road for as second to look at her passenger

"I've got a splitting headache" Arnold replied back

"Well will be home in a few minutes" she looked back to the road

Exactly as she had promised, a few minutes went by before she pulled up to the curb of her apartment. Arnold silently opened the SUV door and got out. His headache became more intense as he stood. Helga helped him up the steps and into the house. Her trio was in the living room watching TV.

"Do you want to get on the couch or go get in the bed?" she asked him, closing the front door.

He thought for a second weighing the pros and cons of each place. "The couch, I can watch TV" he started heading towards the living room.

Helga walked to the kitchen and fixed him a glass of ice water and got his pills out to be taken for the headache. She walked out of the kitchen with the glass in one hand and the pills in another.

Arnold was lying on the couch, Ace was in the chair and Diamond and Lindsay were planted on the love seat. All four were intently interested in the episode of 'The Soprano's" that was on.

"Here sweetie…" she leaned over the couch giving Arnold the glass and medicine. He took the pills immediately and drank the water down.

"Thank you" he smiled to her

She smiled and walked around the couch towards the hallway.

"Hey, where are you going?" Arnold called to her

"To my room to take a nap" she replied as she continued walking. She walked to her room door, opened it and walked in closing it behind her. She kicked off her shoes in the middle of the floor and crawled up under her comforter for a nap. She rested on her side facing away from the door.

Shortly after she heard her door creak open, she turned over to see Arnold in the doorway.

"What's wrong?" she asked him

"Can I join you for a nap?" he shrugged. She smiled and patted the empty part of the bed beside her. He walked over to the bed and crawled up under the covers, snuggling up to her. He kissed the back of her neck and smiled

"I love you" he whispered

Helga turned over to face him, smiling. "I love you too" she kissed him on the lips, careful not to hurt his face. The two of them then wandered into sleep, Arnolds peaceful and Helga's restless.

**(Flashback)**

2:05am

The night was relatively young for the young wild girls out on the town. The LA lights danced through the night air. Clubs bumped wildly to the latest rap or techno music out. Clubs however were not enough entertainment for a young girl and her entourage of pals drunk and high on drugs. The center of this cult, non other than the girl formally known as Helga Pataki now McGrath since her recent marriage to a guy most of her famous friends considered a 'nobody'.

Her white Navigator blazed down the interstate way over the speed limit. Occupied with laughing girls blasting their rock music till their ear drums busted. Its occupants consisted of Helga driving, Phoebe riding shot gun, and Rhonda Lloyd, Britney Lohan, a Sydney Hilton in the back.

They sped up to a loan car on the two lane with them. Helga looked over and gave the man the finger before cutting in front of him, almost taking off his front end. The girls in the back laughed hysterically as they watched the car slam on brakes to avoid being hit. Helga sped off onto an exit nearly flipping the SUV in the process. They cruised down the highway looking for a suitable place to party. Helga was doing about 90mph down the strip dodging cars left and right. She looked in the rear-view mirror and saw a pair of red and blue lights flashing behind her.

"Shit!" she yelled. She then hung her body out the window and gave the cops the finger which made her occupants nearly pee in their pants laughing. Who cares if the cops were after them, they were having fun and what could the cops do to them? They were famous and rich. They kept the cops on the chase for a few more miles before Helga tried to take a turn more sharply than her big vehicle could handle.

The girls skidded right off the road into a tree planted for beautification of the roads. They hit hard, but not hard enough to hurt either one of them, and honestly they were all too drunk and high to do anything but laugh about. Before they knew it the cops were around them dragging them out of the vehicle and hand cuffing them. An hour later the girls were all lined up taking mug shots, Helga's in which they had to take multiple times for inability to keep a straight face….and the hand gestures at bay.

**(End of Flashback)**

Helga jumped awake quickly.

"Damn!" she grumbled, slightly pissed off

"You okay?" Arnold poked her. She looked at him and sighed

"How long have I been out?" she ignored his question. She stretched her legs out.

"About 2 hours, I just woke up a few minutes ago myself. Did you have a nightmare?" he asked again, sitting up in the bed

She sighed and shrugged, looking down at the blanket "not a nightmare, a flashback…"

"A flashback?" Arnold seemed confused.

Helga nodded "yeah I'll have these dreams of past events in my life. But they come and go and I really wished they would go away"

Arnold nodded "sounds to me like stress"

"Stress?"

"Yeah, stress can cause nightmares or it can trigger past events. The extra added stress you've had lately is likely what has triggered this….flashbacks to happen" he smiled at her

"Makes sense I guess. You're the one with the PHD." She laughed.

"The…court date is this week" she said changed the conversation to serious

"You ready to do this?" Arnold put his arm over her shoulders

"I've never been more ready in my life" Helga replied as-matter-of-factly

He kissed the top of her head "I'll be there for you. Always"

**A/N: chapter down hooray. Dustin was pretty awful and she was a wild child back in the day. Next chapter will probably be the court date. Like I said its drawing to a close. [ Anyway R&R as always. Until next time, I'm out. **


	24. Watch Me Walking Away

I don't own it

**Watch Me Walking Away**

Helga was very impressed with the speediness of her lawyer in getting everything together for the original trial date. Any less of a man and she'd be strung out for months going to hearing after hearing for each individual accusation. Luckily money does seem to buy speediness. You always get what you pay for she'd say.

Today was the day. Thursday. She'd been looking forward to this day and dreading its arrival all in the same. She couldn't give you an explanation of WHY she was dreading it. Possibly the fear of innocents or a jury's sympathy. A real horror story like only you'd see in a movie or crime show. However this wasn't a TV show or a movie, it was the real world and you couldn't just turn it off if you didn't like what was happening, you had to face you problems.

Her focus out the car window had changed from seeing passing objects to seeing her own reflection in the glass. She stared at her translucent reflection for what seemed like hours before she felt a warm brush over top her hand. She blinked and turned her head to the driver's side of the car.

"How are you feeling?" Arnold asked, turning his head to her.

She shrugged and sighed, sitting back in the seat "…excited…yet scared…" her voice expressed no joy

Arnold squeezed her hand. "…Everything is going to be alright"

She slightly smirked at him and nodded seeing his smiling face. In the back seats of the SUV sat Ace, Diamond and Lindsay all dressed in their best for the occasion. None of them said a word the entire ride, largely because there was nothing to be said. It was an awkward moment in everybody's life right now and silence was considered golden.

Helga shifted around to view her kids in the back and grinned at them, trying to raise their spirits a little. "Ace…Dia…you both look very handsome. Lindsay you look gorgeous as always sweetie" they all smiled back to their mother.

"I love you mom" Diamond said

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

They sat in a hot mahogany court room for what seems like hours listening and giving testimony after testimony. They watched Dustin take the stand and spin lie after lie of what he said was the truth of the matter. He wore one of his expensive Italian suits with his hair combed nicely, not messy like he normally kept it. A real piece of work he was in that court room.

Helga's lawyer brought up pictures of herself, Diamond and Arnold's injury's at the hands of Dustin. The jury never showed any emotion to anything, which is how it's suppose to be, but it did slightly worry Helga. However, as big of a show as Dustin put on he began slipping back into his old self by the end of the hearing.

When asked the reason for attempting to beat his brother to death he responded "…I did what I had to do"

You could have heard a pin drop in that court room many times over, and Helga rejoiced at this answer. He was finally showing some of his true colors which needed to be seen.

"No further questions" her lawyer motioned him off, feeling that he had gotten what he needed from the witness.

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

It only took the jury 20minutes to reach a verdict. Helga sat at one table and he sat at the other table both anticipating different outcomes to this situation. He turned his head to the left and looked at his soon to be ex-wife. She caught his gaze with her eyes and he gave her a disappointing look.

"_When all is said,_

_And done,_

_And dead,_

_Does he love you,_

_The way that I do,_

_Breathing in,_

_Lightnining,_

_Tonights fighting,_

_I feel the hurt so physical…"_

"We the jury find the defendant…..Guilty"

The words echoed through the court bouncing in and out of everybody's ears. Helga's heart skipped a beat as she repeated that word over and over in her head. Dustin's face dropped and his eyes shifted to the table feeling afraid for the first time. He'd lost. She'd won. How had this happened? He thought to himself.

He shot up from the table yelling for Arnold. The court officers grabbed him and shoved him down on the desk to hand cuff him.

"Arnold! You little bastard!" he yelled trying to push up from the officers death pin.

"…_Think twice before you touch my girl,_

_Come around and I'll let you feel the burn,_

_Think twice before you touch my girl,_

_Come around come around,_

_No more,_

_Think twice before you touch my girl,_

_Come around and I'll let you feel the burn,_

_Think twice before you touch my girl,_

_Come around come around,_

_No more…"_

Helga stood up from the desk, never peeling her eyes off her soon to be ex-husbands tantrum. A real embarrassment he was. Arnold walked up to her at the desk and whispered something into her ear.

"Helga you'll realize you made a mistake! You hear me!" Dustin yelled to her as they were walking him out to the side exit of the court house.

"Come on lets go" Arnold's hand found her hand and she nodded to him

"…_She spreads her love,_

_She burns me up,_

_I can't let go,_

_I can't get out,_

_I've said enough,_

_Enough by now,_

_I can't let go,_

_I can't get out…"_

The pair made their way through the court house crowd preparing to go out the front doors to the car. When they swung open the heavy wooden doors they were blinded by millions of camera flashes and people wanting interviews.

"Fuck!" Helga yelled, really annoyed at this point. "Don't you people have lives!" she yelled. They didn't listen they kept asking question after question. They'd suck the blood right out of you if they could. Arnold cursed before grabbing her arm and pulling her back into the court house and shutting the doors.

Arnold walked through the court people till have found Ace. "Hey, do me a favor. Go get the car and pull it around to the side" he handed the boy the keys.

Arnold went back to Helga and motioned her to the side door "will go out this way, Ace is getting the car."

"…_Wait till the day,_

_You finally see,_

_I've been here waiting,_

_Patiently,_

_Crossing my fingers,_

_And my T's,_

_You cried on my shoulder,_

_Begging please…"_

Out on the street Dustin was still being the most unmanageable he possibly could for the cops trying to load him into the back seat of the car. He was yelling and screaming that he wanted to see his wife, and that it was all a misunderstanding. They finally shoved him in the back seat and slammed the door in his face.

"…_Think twice before you touch my girl,_

_Come around I'll let you feel the burn,_

_Think twice before you touch my girl,_

_Come around come around,_

_No more,_

_Think twice before you touch my girl,_

_Come around I'll let you feel the burn,_

_Think twice before you touch my girl,_

_Come around come around,_

_No more…_

_She spreads her love,_

_She burns me up,_

_I can't let go,_

_I can't get out,_

_I've said enough,_

_Enough by now_

_I can't let go,_

_I can't get out…"_

Arnold peeked out the side door seeing if there were any weary paparazzi that had strayed from the herd out front. It didn't see any, just two cop cars down below. The two of them hurried down to the sidewalk seeing Ace wipe around the corner with the SUV.

Dustin saw Helga and started yelling as loud as he could through the rolled up window. He was loud enough that she heard him and stopped.

"_What is it you really want?_

_I'm tired of asking…"_

She gave him a 'why are you doing this' look. The two of them stared for moments, Dustin jaw quivered looking for words but not finding any.

"_When I showed up,_

_And he was there,_

_I tried my best,_

_To grin and bare,_

_And took the stairs,_

_But didn't stop and street,_

_And as we speak,_

_I'm going down…"_

She looked away from him and began walking across the street with Arnold their vehicle awaiting.

"Helga! Please don't do this!" Dustin yelled, slight tears forming in his eyes coming to the realization of her abandonment of him.

Across the street Ace got out of the truck so Arnold could get in and his mother got in the passengers side. Ace ran to go get his siblings that were probably amidst the growing crowd. He looked at Helga and grabbed her, pulling her into a kiss. She stiffened at first clearly not expecting something like that at this very second. Her hands went to each side of his face as she deepened it. They finally parted for air but their faces stayed together, forehead touch forehead staring at each others eyes.

"It's finally over baby" Arnold spoke out with excitement "it's finally over!"

Helga smiled and a small laugh squeaked out as she was trying to hold back the tears of joy. Arnold laughed and kissed her again and hugging her as tight as he could seeing as he was reaching over from his seat to hers.

"Life can begin Arnold" she replied resting her face on his shoulder, hugging him back. She felt as if the horrible black mass that had been holding her down was lifted, she felt like a new person.

**A/N: God we finally got rid of him. Lol. Well just one last chapter to go and the story will be done. But um, I'm actually writing the prequel to this story. It goes through her and the gang being teenagers and her early marriage and rise and fall from the fame scene. Basically the stuff she has flashbacks about now and everything that got her where she is now. So if anybody's interested I'll prolly be posting it as soon as I wrap up the last chapter here. just a crazy idea of mine. Well R&R please. Love yall that do, yall keep me motivated. Well until next time. I'm out!**


	25. Life Begins

I dont own Hey Arnold

Hey there! Yeah i decided to go back and do a little more tweaking to this last chapter. I felt it was a little too rushed so i added a few more things. Mostly Arnold's inner feelings about the new baby, some different word choices and sentence arranging, some varied dialog. Just a good tweak job i guess. Anywho enjoy!

**Life Begins**

**(5 months later)**

Arnold sat, leaning forward in an expensive leather desk chair; his body was hovered over a large oak desk, filled with a sea of parchment of all sorts. He picked up each piece of paper, scanning through it carefully before placing it neatly in an assorted stack. His make shift filing system for the time being. He did this a dozen or so more time before sighing and collapsing back into the chairs inviting comfort. He was bored out of his educated mind. He wasn't in his office, rather his brothers. It was empty, quiet and quite sleazy looking.

Helga and he had recently decided to let someone else step in and manage the agency, seeing as neither of them wanted to deal with it. The two had been in this place for the last month, up to and above their eyeballs in an ocean of paperwork. Apparently nobody employed here ever filed a single piece of paper…ever.

Today Arnold found himself here alone since his counter part had waked up feeling a bit under the weather that morning. He didn't mind being here alone, but the abrupt lasting silence killed him. He sat up once more, running his right hand through his short blonde locks. As he leaned over the desk he caught the faint white flicker of a square light seeping through a piece of white paper. The slid the paper off realizing it was his phone alerting him to an incoming call, as it was turned to silent.

He flipped it open and popped it to his ear "hello?"

"Dude Arnold! Where have you been!?" The ecstatic voice of Diamond echoed through the device

Arnold's face crinkled into confusion "I've been at the agency all day—"

"Mom's water broke!" the boy replied back, barely giving Arnold time to finish is own sentence

"What?!" Arnold jumped up from the chair almost tripping around the desk "When?! Where is she?! Why didn't she call me?!" he tripped over his words in haste while grabbing his keys and knocking his great organizational feat of papers over.

"You wouldn't ever answer! Were at the hospital" Diamond replied

"Okay…alright…okay…I'll be there in a few minutes" he answered back quickly, knocking the stairway door open to take the stairs down.

"Alright bye!" they both ended hung up their phones in Unisom.

Arnold jogged out of the agency building to his new truck. He grabbed his keyless entry and pressed buttons franticly.

"Open dammit!" he cursed at the vehicle in frustration

He finally pushed the right button and was able to open his driver door. He hopped in and sped off. It took him a little over 10 minutes to drive to the hospital and another 15 to find parking in garage area. After what seemed like eternity to him, he finally jogged through the sliding doors of the hospital, a big wind of cold air rushing around him.

He jogged to the receptionist desk and lightly dropped his hands onto of the counter "Helga McGrath, where is she?" he asked breathing in deep to catch his breath

The young woman typed a few buttons in on her computer before looking at him and saying "floor 4 sir, labor ward"

Arnold thanked her and briskly walked off to the elevator, which he saw was opening to let people off. He jumped in quickly, with a few other people on their way up. He had the first stop; everybody else was heading further up. The elevator doors opened in the lobby and he could see another receptionist desk and a waiting room further back.

He skipped across the lobby to the second receptionist desk. "Helga McGrath. Can I find out where she is?"

"Sir Can we get your name?" he older receptionist asked him, coolly

"Arnold McGrath. She's having a baby" he was getting fidgety

"Alright sir come with me" the same receptionist motioned him to follow her down the hallway. As they walked past the waiting area he saw the kids sitting lazily in chairs. Arnold gave them an 'its-okay' nod before passing by and continuing down the hall way to a certain door. He thanked the nurse and hurriedly walked in door to see lots of blue scrubs and Helga looking rather sweaty sitting in a pair of stirrups. Helga turned her head seeing him out of the corner of her eye and her eyes brightened.

"Sweetie!" he said before starting to walk to her side. He was stopped by a man in scrubs before he could make it to her.

"Sir you can't be back here!" he boomed

"He's fine!" Helga cut in, sounding in pain. Arnold didn't wait for an okay; he pushed passed the man in pursuit of her needs.

"You okay sweetie?" he asked, realizing it was dumb but what else could he say. He gently found her hand and squeezed.

"It hurts" she smirked to him. She then quickly breathed in and clinched her teeth together in another contraction.

"Alright Helga, when I count to three I want you to push as hard as you can" the doctor squatted down between her legs. "You ready?" he asked again

She nodded and pushed herself up with her elbows, still holding on to Arnolds hand as well.

"1…2…3!" the doctor counted.

Helga pushed as hard as she could possibly muster out, and Arnold felt it severely in his crushing hand bones. He'd never felt anything so painful in his entire life. Helga let out a yell ending her first pushing spell, and relieving Arnolds crunched hand.

"Good Helga good! I can see the head. On my count give me another push!"

"1…2…3!"

Helga's teeth clinched and her face crinkled up as she pushed for her life. Her strength gave out and she fell back onto the bed, tears forming in her eyes. Arnold wiped the sweat off her face with his hand and gave her a kiss on the forehead

"You're doing great sweetie" he whispered to her

"I need one more push Helga just one more big push!" the doctor stared up at her.

She sucked it in and leaned up once more and gave it all she had. Arnold watched the doctor intently to see anything, any kind of reaction in his eyes. Helga screamed and collapsed back onto the bed.

Arnold expected to here the cry of a new life entering the world, but heard nothing.

"You've got a boy Helga" the doctor replied, still no crying to be heard

She leaned forward to see but saw nothing. Finally after a few seconds the tiny squeal of a baby pierced through the tiny room. Both Helga and Arnold sighed in relief. Two nurses grabbed the infant gently and began cleaning him up for presentation. They The wrapped the tiny newborn up in a blue blanket and handed him gently to Helga. She took him, holding him close to her until his crying softened into tiny coos.

Once he'd quieted and everybody but Arnold had left the room she held him down in her arms to gaze upon her beauty. She smiled at his little blue eyes, his tiny nose and hands clinched in a small fist. She shook from her trance a few minutes later, remember Arnold. she looked up to him, glowing with joy and asked "want to hold him?" she smiled

He's eyes lit up and he smiled "yeah"

She very carefully handed the bundle of joy into his awaiting arms. He climbed up and sat in the bed with Helga, holding him.

"He's so tiny" Arnold piped at almost a whisper. He never took his eyes off of the little baby stealing his heart by the second.

A few minutes of silence crept by before being broken.

"We never decided on a name for him" Helga brought up to Arnold. He smiled at her and then back to the baby

"I've got just the perfect name. Phillip Avery McGrath" he replied back

"After your grandpa…" she propped her chin up on his shoulder, tucking an arm through his "I think its beautiful Arnold"

He and Helga shared a glowing smile over the name choice of the baby.

"God, he perfect" he continued to awe. He then turned to Helga and invited her into a deep kiss.

"I love you" he whispered after they broke apart.

"I love you too"

**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

(**2 days later)**

"Anybody home!" Arnold asked peeking his head in the door of him and Helga's posh new home. He continued opening the wooden door till it was full extended so they could walk in with ease. He had a little black book bag on his shoulders and a sleeping Phillip in a car seat basinet in his right hand. Helga walked in behind him looking very fatigued from her stay in the hospital. Truthfully she was extremely worn out.

Lindsey trotted from the living room to the dinning room where the front door was with a huge smile on her face. "I want to hold him!" she squealed excitedly.

Helga laughed "I want that kind of excitement when you have to change his diaper"

Arnold helped Lindsey get him out and hold him. She sat down at the dinning table.

"Do you want to go up stairs and take a nap?" Arnold asked the extremely fatigued Helga.

"That would be mucho excellent" she smiled. Arnold laughed and escorted her up stairs to their room.

In their room Helga collapsed back onto the extra soft mattress feeling like she couldn't move it felt so good to lay there. Arnold jumped on top of her covering her face in hundreds of kisses making her laugh.

"Okay, well you nap and I'll take care of dinner and everything else for the night okay?" he smiled putting his forehead to her forehead.

"Okay" she kissed him. He hopped off her and the bed and walked back down stairs. It didn't take Helga but a few minutes to drift off into a blissful sound sleep.

Arnold bound off the bottom of the stairs to the floor of the living room. He walked into the dinning room where Lindsay was cooing at her new baby brother. He grinned at her facial expressions to Phillip.

"It's about time for his lunch" Arnold chimed in.

Lindsay laughed "I think i'll give him back to you for that" she turned and offered up the infant to Arnold.

Arnold took him, cradling him to his body "It's not as hard as you think" He laughed before grabbing the diaper bag and heading to the kitchen. He sat the bag on the counter and rooted through it with one hand for his bottle. He mixed the formula and microwaved the bottle to the proper temprature and then headed into the living room to sit down and feed him. Phillip wasn't too cranky yet, but he would be if he didn't get his lunch.

Arnold gently sat down in his leather recliner, he pulled the lever on the side and reclined his feet up, settling in comfy like in his chair. He cradled Phillip in a good position and began feeding him his bottle. The baby sucked the bottle down slowly. Arnold stared at him, his eyes sparkling with ever growing love for him.

He'd become lost in his thoughts over Phillip. It was all so new to him and yet so fantastic at the same time. He remembered he wasn't sure how he would feel about the baby, his brother's child. He'd talked big about it that day at the court house, but truthfully he didn't know. He wanted to be with Helga, and this baby was part of Helga. To him now, as he smiled so warmly at Phillip drinking his bottle, this baby was apart of him now too.

He didn't care what anybody thought, he didn't care about paternity, he didn't care about any of it. To him Dustin had no more rights to Phillip. He would love this baby like his own, because he considered him his own.

Arnold was brought out of his thoughts by Phillip finishing up his bottle. He gently pulled it away from the infant and sat it on the chair side table. He then proceeded to cradle and burp the baby. He burped rather quickly. Arnold cradled him close, gazing upon him. Arnold then leaned down and kissed his tiny cream forehead.

"Daddy loves you." he cooed softly

**(A few hours later)**

Helga awoke from her slumber to find that it was nightfall outside and the house extremely quiet. She looked at her bedside clock to see what the giant red numbers had to offer. 11:03p.m. she rolled over and saw Arnold asleep in his pajamas. She looked around the room and saw that he had dragged the crib into their room from Phillip's room. He was beginning to stir as well. Helga got up and walked to the cradle, reached in and picked up her baby.

"I bet you're probably getting pretty hungry huh little man?" she cuddled him giving him kisses on the forehead. She walked with him down stairs, heated up a bottle and then walked back upstairs and fed him while she sat in the bed.

He slowly drank about half of the little bottle down, filling his belly full. His mother burped him, cuddled him to her hearts content, until he drifted off into a sound sleep before placing him back in his crib. She however, didn't go back to bed. She felt the urge for some ice cream before she went back to her slumber.

She trudged back downstairs to the kitchen for her ice cream. The house was dark and quiet, but not eerie or cold. It was warm and comforting, bursting with love and happiness. She loved it. She walked into her brand new kitchen and rummaged through the freezer for her ice cream. She always ate out of the container, a bad habit of hers. She grabbed a spoon and dug in, sitting at the kitchen table.

She ate her fill and decided she was ready to hit the sack again. She turned the lights off in the kitchen and slowly walked back up the wood stairs. She walked into the room and saw Arnold on his left side cradling Phillip in his right arm both her boys were sound to sleep. She smiled. She walked over and lifted Phillip out of his arm and put him back in his crib.

"Sweetheart…" A low warm voice spoke out. She turned seeing Arnold sitting up lazily with sleepiness.

"Everything okay?" he asked, wiping his eyes. She gave him a cute look.

"Yeah, i was just putting Phillip back to bed" she turned off the light before returning to the bed and cuddling up to him.

Arnold wrapped his arms around her planting soft kisses on her lips. She lovingly kissed him back, stroking his face with the back of her hand.

"I love you Helga" he said, very low toned

"I love you too Arnold" they smiled before drifting off to a truly happy deep sleep, looking forward to the future.

**A/N: that's its folks. That's the end. I thought that was a very happy ending to her story and his as well. They each got something they wanted. I thought the idea of her going down stairs again to get ice cream at the end was cool because if you remember last time she did that she got busted up by Dustin and this time she just eats her ice cream and goes back to bed. I thought it was a good references of how much better her life had gotten. Any who, that's as far as I can take this story. I hope yall have enjoyed it. I've enjoyed writing it. I hope yall stick around for the prequel. Thanks for all the support! Later**


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